Antiwar Democrat Marcy Winograd Challenges Rep. Jane Harman in California Primary8 Jun 2010Voters in twelve states head to the polls today. Ten states are holding primaries: California, Iowa, Maine, Montana, Nevada, New Jersey, North Dakota, South Carolina, South Dakota and Virginia. There’s also a Senate runoff in Arkansas and a congressional runoff in north Georgia. Today we look at one race in particular: the congressional race in Southern California’s 36th District, where antiwar candidate, longtime activist and Progressive Democrat Marcy Winograd is challenging the eight-term incumbent Jane Harman, a conservative Blue Dog Democrat. Four years ago, Winograd challenged Harman and won more than 35 percent of the vote.
Pentagon Bars Four Reporters from Guantnamo8 Jun 2010We’re joined here in New York by Michelle Shephard, the national security reporter for the Toronto Star. She’s been following the story of the Canadian-born Omar Khadr since his arrest as a teenager in Afghanistan in 2002. She is the author of Guantnamo?s Child: The Untold Story of Omar Khadr. Michelle Shephard was among the four journalists who have recently been banned from covering military commissions in Guantnamo Bay for publishing the name of an interrogator involved in the case of Omar Khadr. The other journalists are Carol Rosenberg from the Miami Herald, the Globe and Mail’s Paul Koring, and Steven Edwards from Canwest News Service. [includes rush transcript]
Experiments in Torture: Medical Group Accuses CIA of Carrying Out Illegal Human Experimentation8 Jun 2010A new report from Physicians for Human Rights accuses the Bush administration of conducting illegal and unethical human experimentation and research on prisoners in CIA custody. The report details how doctors, psychologists and other professionals monitored the effects of sleep deprivation, waterboarding and other so-called “enhanced interrogation” techniques on more than a dozen prisoners. It charges that CIA doctors and other medical personnel turned the prisoners into research subjects and collected data in order to study and refine those techniques, but did so under the guise of trying to protect the health of the detainees. [includes rush transcript]
Veteran White House Reporter Helen Thomas Retires After Israel Remarks8 Jun 2010Veteran White House correspondent Helen Thomas has retired amid a firestorm of criticism over comments she made on the Israel-Palestine conflict. Widely known as ?the dean of the White House press corps,? Thomas is the most senior White House correspondent and has covered every president since John F. Kennedy. In a brief video interview with the website RabbiLive.com, Thomas said her message to Israelis is to “get the hell out of Palestine.” Thomas also suggested Israeli Jews should return to Poland, Germany or the United States. Thomas later issued a statement saying, “I deeply regret my comments I made last week regarding the Israelis and the Palestinians. They do not reflect my heart-felt belief that peace will come to the Middle East only when all parties recognize the need for mutual respect and tolerance. May that day come soon.” We speak to former Senator James Abourezk, the first Arab American in the Senate. [includes rush transcript]
Headlines for June 8, 20108 Jun 2010Scientist: Rate of Gulf Spill Expanding, Internal BP Probes: Neglect Could Lead to Accidents, Financial Commission Subpoenas Goldman Sachs, 10 Troops, Including 7 Americans, Killed in Afghanistan, Israel Rejects International Probe, Clinton: Honduras Should Be Readmitted to OAS, Attorney Peter Erlinder Denied Bail in Rwanda, Natural Gas Explosions in Texas and West Virginia, Fired Massey Coal Miner Files Whistleblower Complaint, “Lightening” of Faces on Arizona Mural Stirs Controversy, Iranian TV Airs Video Purportedly of Missing Scientist
Johan Galtung on “The Fall of the US Empire”7 Jun 2010The amount of money the United States has spent on wars in Afghanistan and Iraq surpassed the $1 trillion mark last week, according to the National Priorities Project Cost of War counter. To date, over $747 billion has been appropriated for the war in Iraq and $299 billion for the war in Afghanistan. The US is spending over $136 billion on the wars this year. I’m joined now by Johan Galtung, who has spent the past half-century pursuing nonviolent conflict resolution in international relations. He’s known as a founder of the field of peace and conflict studies.
BP Oil Spill Threatens Future of Indigenous Communities in Louisiana7 Jun 2010During our recent trip to southern Louisiana, we visited Grand Bayou, a village accessible only by boat, that feels they are on the brink of extinction. The indigenous Atakapa-Ishak people in this coastal Louisiana village have relied on the land and water around them to survive for generations. They live mostly off the oysters, shrimp and fish they draw from the marshes. Now the traditions and very survival of this small community are at risk. We went to Grand Bayou on the same day as a visiting delegation from Alaska who survived the Exxon-Valdez spill and spoke to indigenous leaders from both disaster-affected communities.
Israel Rejects Call for International Probe into Attack on Gaza Flotilla7 Jun 2010While international condemnation of Israel continues, inside Israel the mood is quite different. An Israeli parliamentary panel recommended today that the Knesset revoke the privileges of Israeli Arab lawmaker Hanin Zoabi for participating in last week’s Gaza-bound aid flotilla. Right-wing demonstrators targeted a peace protest in Tel Aviv Saturday and reportedly attacked veteran Israeli activist, the eighty-six-year-old Uri Avnery. For more on the fallout of the flotilla attack and the reactions inside Israel, I’m joined now from Jaffa by Max Blumenthal. [includes rush transcript]
Headlines for June 7, 20107 Jun 2010Israel Seizes Another Gaza-Bound Aid Boat, Report: Israel Had Assassination List, Israeli Navy Kills Four Off Coast of Gaza, Coast Guard Commander: “This Spill Is Holding Everybody Hostage”, Oil Tar Bars Spotted on Pensacola Beach in Florida, Report: Many Gulf Coast Judges Tied to Oil and Gas Industry, US Intel Analyst Arrested for Leaking Wikileaks Video, US Elite Special Forces Deployed Across World, Amnesty: US Missiles Used in Yemen Air Strike, Obama Nominates James Clapper to Intel Post, CIA Personnel Engaged in Human Experimentation, DR Congo Police Chief Suspended in Probe of Activist Death, Eight Convicted for Bhopal Disaster, Tristan Anderson Returns Home to California, US Calls for Probe into Israeli Shooting of American Student, Helen Thomas Under Fire for Comments about Israel, The Pixies Cancel Concert in Israel, Silvio Rodriguez Peforms in US for First Time Since 1980
Family Members Fear for Life of Jailed US Attorney Peter Erlinder in Rwanda4 Jun 2010The US State Department is calling on the Rwandan government to release attorney Peter Erlinder, the past president of the National Lawyers Guild. Erlinder has been imprisoned for the past week after being charged with denying the Rwandan genocide. The Rwandan government has been accused of using laws barring genocide denial to silence opposition critics. [includes rush transcript]
As Obama Refuses to Condemn Flotilla Assault, Survivors Recount Shootings, Beatings Aboard Mavi Marmara4 Jun 2010While the Obama administration has refused to condemn the Israeli flotilla raid outright, survivors of the assault continue to challenge Israeli military claims that soldiers acted in self-defense after rappelling onto the lead vessel, the Mavi Marmara. We speak to two passengers who were aboard the ship: Kevin Neish of the Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid and Kevin Ovenden of Viva Palestina. [includes rush transcript]
Headlines for June 4, 20104 Jun 2010MV Rachel Corrie Continues Aid Mission to Gaza, Thousands Mourn Turkish Victims of Flotilla Attack, Passenger: Israeli Troops Fired at Unarmed Passengers, Ignored SOS Calls, Israeli Military Retracts Claim Passengers “Al Qaeda Mercenaries”, Swedish Dockers Boycott Israeli Goods, Ships in Flotilla Protest, BP Caps Well, Awaits Results, Scientists: Spill Could Extend Up Atlantic Ocean, Gov’t Could Be Underestimating Spill Size, Widow: Rig Victim Worried of Safety Conditions Before Explosion, BP Lobbyists Have Government Ties, Alabama Prisoners Hired for Spill Cleanup, Report: US Special Forces Deployed in 75 Countries, UN Rapporteur: Drones Attacks Undermine “International Accountability”, Bush: US Waterboarded Alleged 9/11 Mastermind, Study: Over 1,400 Financial Lobbyists Formerly Worked in Gov’t, Report: G8 Preparing to Drop Africa Aid Pledge, UN Calls for Probe into Death of DRC Human Rights Activist
Family Members Fear for Life of Jailed US Attorney Peter Erlinder in Rwanda4 Jun 2010The US State Department is calling on the Rwandan government to release attorney Peter Erlinder, the past president of the National Lawyers Guild. Erlinder has been imprisoned for the past week after being charged with denying the Rwandan genocide. The Rwandan government has been accused of using laws barring genocide denial to silence opposition critics.
As Obama Refuses to Condemn Flotilla Assault, Survivors Recount Shootings, Beatings Aboard Mavi Marmara4 Jun 2010While the Obama administration has refused to condemn the Israeli flotilla raid outright, survivors of the assault continue to challenge Israeli military claims that soldiers acted in self-defense after rappelling onto the lead vessel, the Mavi Marmara. We speak to two passengers who were aboard the ship: Kevin Neish of the Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid and Kevin Ovenden of Viva Palestina. [includes rush transcript]
Headlines for June 4, 20104 Jun 2010MV Rachel Corrie Continues Aid Mission to Gaza, Thousands Mourn Turkish Victims of Flotilla Attack, Passenger: Israeli Troops Fired at Unarmed Passengers, Ignored SOS Calls, Israeli Military Retracts Claim Passengers “Al Qaeda Mercenaries”, Swedish Dockers Boycott Israeli Goods, Ships in Flotilla Protest, BP Caps Well, Awaits Results, Scientists: Spill Could Extend Up Atlantic Ocean, Gov’t Could Be Underestimating Spill Size, Widow: Rig Victim Worried of Safety Conditions Before Explosion, BP Lobbyists Have Government Ties, Alabama Prisoners Hired for Spill Cleanup, Report: US Special Forces Deployed in 75 Countries, UN Rapporteur: Drones Attacks Undermine “International Accountability”, Bush: US Waterboarded Alleged 9/11 Mastermind, Study: Over 1,400 Financial Lobbyists Formerly Worked in Gov’t, Report: G8 Preparing to Drop Africa Aid Pledge, UN Calls for Probe into Death of DRC Human Rights Activist
US Student Loses Eye After Israel Fires on West Bank Protest3 Jun 2010American college student Emily Henochowicz, 21, has lost her left eye after being shot in the face by an Israeli tear-gas canister during a protest against the flotilla assault in the occupied West Bank. A talented visual artist whose recent work has been inspired by her experiences in Israel and the Occupied Territories, Emily also suffered considerable facial damage, including fractures to the bone around the eye socket, cheek and jaw. We speak to Israeli peace activist Jonathan Pollak, who witnessed the attack. [includes rush transcript]
Actor Q’orianka Kilcher Arrested at White House Protest in Support of Peruvian Indigenous Rights3 Jun 2010President Obama met with Peruvian President Alan Garca at the White House on Tuesday amidst growing unrest in Peru over the Alan Garca government’s free market policies that open up indigenous lands to resource extraction. Outside the White House, Hollywood actor Q’orianka Kilcher chained herself to a fence, her body covered in black paint to represent oil. She was forcibly removed, and the police had to use a saw to cut through her chains. [includes rush transcript]
Headlines for June 3, 20103 Jun 2010All Slain Flotilla Victims Suffered Bullet Wounds; 19-Year-Old US Citizen Among Dead, Netanyahu: Flotilla Passengers “Violent Supporters of Terrorism”, Biden Defends Israeli Assault, Gaza Blockade, UN Human Rights Council Votes for Probe of Flotilla Attack, US Opposed, BP’s Latest Effort to Slow Leak Fails; Oil Reaches Alabama, Mississippi, New Drilling Well Approved in Gulf of Mexico, Citing Oil Spill, Obama Calls for Energy Bill Passage, UN Calls for Halt to CIA Drone Attacks, US Altered Military Rules to Protect Drone Operators, Violence Erupts at Afghan Peace Meeting, Obama Expands Benefits for Same-Sex Partners of Federal Workers, Guard at Private Immigration Prison Fired for Sexual Assault
US Student Loses Eye After Israel Fires on West Bank Protest3 Jun 2010American college student Emily Henochowicz, 21, has lost her left eye after being shot in the face by an Israeli tear-gas canister during a protest against the flotilla assault in the occupied West Bank. A talented visual artist whose recent work has been inspired by her experiences in Israel and the Occupied Territories, Emily also suffered considerable facial damage, including fractures to the bone around the eye socket, cheek and jaw. We speak to Israeli peace activist Jonathan Pollak, who witnessed the attack. [includes rush transcript]
Actor Q’orianka Kilcher Arrested at White House Protest in Support of Peruvian Indigenous Rights3 Jun 2010President Obama met with Peruvian President Alan Garcia at the White House on Tuesday amidst growing unrest in Peru over the Alan Garcia government’s free-market policies that open up indigenous lands to resource extraction. Outside the White House, Hollywood actor Q’orianka Kilcher chained herself to a fence, her body covered in black paint to represent oil. She was forcibly removed and the police had to use a saw to cut through her chains.
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