Greg Palast Reports on the Battle Between Indigenous Ecuadorians and the U.S. Oil Giant Chevron
26 Dec 2007
Investigative Journalist Greg Palast files this report from the rainforests of Ecuador, where an indigenous tribe is suing Chevron for $12 billion for contaminating the Amazon. We also play part of Palast’s interview with Ecuador’s President Rafael Correa. [includes rush transcript – partial]

Former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto Assassinated
26 Dec 2007
Former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto has been assassinated just two months after returning to Pakistan from exile. She died after an apparent suicide attack in the city of Rawalpindi. Bhutto had just addressed an election rally when gunfire and an explosion occurred. We go to Pakistan and simulcast part of the breaking news coverage on Dawn News and speak with Sadaf Aziz, professor of law and policy at Lahore University of Management Sciences, and Zia Mian, a physicist with the Program on Science and Global Security at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University. [includes rush transcript]

Headlines for December 27, 2007
26 Dec 2007
Ex-Pakistani Prime Minister Bhutto Assassinated, U.S. Special Forces to Expand Presence in Pakistan, Musharraf and Karzai Hold Talks in Pakistan, Bush Signs Spending Bill Including $70B For Iraq War, Turkey Praises U.S. For Proving Intel on Northern Iraq, UNICEF: 25,000 Iraqi Children Displaced Each Month, Senate Democrats Block Recess Appointment of Author of Torture Memo, Housing Prices Plummet By Over Six Percent, Investment Banks Dole Out Record $30 Billion in Bonuses, Teenager Dies After Cigna Refused To Pay For Transplant, EEOC Rules Employers Can Eliminate Health Benefits for Retirees At 65, Deans of Journalism Schools Warn Against Media Consolidation

Shooting Back: The Israeli Human Rights Group B’Tselem Gives Palestinians Video Cameras to Document Life Under Occupation.
25 Dec 2007
B’Tselem has given Palestinian families across the West Bank video cameras to document how they are treated by Israeli soldiers and settlers. Some of the videos depicting abuse by settlers sparked a national debate earlier this year after they were broadcast on Israeli television. We speak with Oren Yakobovich who coordinates B’Tselem’s video department.

“Today?s Decision Would Make George Orwell Proud”—FCC Commissioner Michael Copps on the FCC’s Vote to Rewrite the Nation’s Media Ownership Rules
25 Dec 2007
The Federal Communications Commission voted three to two on party lines last week to approve a measure that would increase media consolidation. The new rule pushed through by FCC Chairman Kevin Martin lifts a 30-year old ban on companies seeking to own both a newspaper and television or radio station in the same city. Michael Copps was one of two FCC Commissioners to vote against the rule.

Headlines for December 26, 2007
25 Dec 2007
Turkish Warplanes Continue Raids on Northern Iraq, Australia and Poland To Withdraw Troops From Iraq, Gates: U.S. Needs 7,500 More Troops in Afghanistan, California to Sue EPA Over Auto Emissions Standards, Lakota Indians Declare Sovereignty From U.S., FBI Builds Database of People’s Physical Characteristics, Palestinians Urge Israel to Stop Settlement Expansion, Israeli Rules It Was OK To Use Cluster Bombs in Lebanon, Hindu Politician Tied To 2002 Massacre Re-Elected in Gujurat, Nepal to Abolish the Monarchy, FBI’s Hoover Drafted Plan to Imprison 12,000 Americans

StoryCorps: National Social History Project Records Ordinary People Telling Their Stories to Each Other
24 Dec 2007
We hear the voices of people, citizen and non-citizen, old and young telling their stories to each other. A grandmother tells her grandson about her own childhood. A young man proposes to his girlfriend. A soldier talks about his experience in war. A father remembers a loved one who passed away….All of these are stories told by ordinary Americans. Now, thousands of them are preserved forever – in sound. Three years ago, award-winning radio producer Dave Isay created a national social history project called StoryCorps. It now has the potential to become one of the largest documentary oral history projects ever donated to the Library of Congress. [includes rush transcript]

Legendary Beat Generation Bookseller and Poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti of City Lights Books on the 50th Anniversary of Jack Kerouac?s ?On The Road?, Allen Ginsberg?s ?Howl? and Poetry As Insurgent Art
23 Dec 2007
Fifty years ago this year Viking Press published Jack Kerouac?s novel On The Road. Today we will talk with City Lights Books? publisher and poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti. In 1953, Ferlinghetti co-founded City Lights Bookstore in San Francisco, the first all-paperbound bookshop in the country. Two years later he launched the City Lights publishing house. Both institutions are still running half of a century later. [includes rush transcript]

U.S. Soldiers Stage Mutiny, Refuse Orders in Iraq Fearing They Would Commit Massacre in Revenge for IED Attack
20 Dec 2007
We speak with a reporter from the Army Times who gives an inside account of how an army unit committed mutiny and refused to carry out orders in Iraq. After an IED attack killed five more members of Charlie 1-26, members of 2nd Platoon gathered for a meeting and determined they could no longer function professionally. Several platoon members were afraid their anger could set loose a massacre. [includes rush transcript]

Forgotten Crises: The Top Ten Most Underreported Humanitarian Stories of 2007
20 Dec 2007
The group Doctors Without Borders has released its list of the top ten most underreported humanitarian stories of 2007. The list highlights the plight of people in places races ranging from the Democratic Republic of Congo, to Zimbabwe, Sri Lanka, Chechnya and elsewhere. As we approach the end of 2007, we take a look back at these forgotten crises with Nicolas de Torrente, executive director of Doctors Without Borders-USA. [includes rush transcript]

New Orleans Police Taser, Pepper Spray Residents Seeking to Block Public Housing Demolition
20 Dec 2007
The New Orleans City Council has unanimously voted to move ahead with the demolition of 4,500 units of public housing. Under the plan, the city’s four largest public housing developments will be razed and replaced with mixed-income housing. Hundreds of people were turned away from the City Council meeting. Police shot protesters with pepper spray and tasers. We go to New Orleans to speak with two local community activists and a former SWAT commander. [includes rush transcript]

Headlines for December 21, 2007
20 Dec 2007
Protesters Arrrested, Tasered as N.O. City Council Backs Home Demolitions, House Intel Committee Subpoenas Ex-Clandestine Head on Tape Destruction, 50 Killed in Pakistan Suicide Bombing, 4 Palestinians Killed in Israeli Attack on Gaza, Ex-Gitmo Prisoners Reunite With Families, U.S. Iraq Embassy Chief Resigns, Bush Signs Foreclosure Assistance Measure, Judge Backs Admin Ban on Islamic Scholar, Tancredo Drops GOP Bid, Endorses Romney, Youngest Brother of Rep. Kucinich Dies

To Impeach or Not to Impeach? A Discussion with House Judiciary Chair John Conyers and CIA Veteran Ray McGovern
19 Dec 2007
Three Democratic members of the House Judiciary Committee—Robert Wexler of Florida, Luis Gutierrez of Illinois, and Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin—have called on committee chair John Conyers to begin impeachment hearings against Vice President Dick Cheney. We host a discussion on impeachment with Conyers and former CIA analyst Ray McGovern. [includes rush transcript]

The Battle to Save New Orleans Public Housing
19 Dec 2007
In New Orleans, protests have been taking place for weeks to block the demolition of 4,500 units of public housing. Jacquie Soohen and Rick Rowley of Big Noise Films file a report from the streets of New Orleans. [includes rush transcript]

Mike Huckabee Equates Environmentalism with Pornography
19 Dec 2007
David Corn of Mother Jones discusses Huckabee’s past writings and why the former Baptist minister’s sermons are being kept secret. In 1998, Huckabee wrote: ?Abortion, environmentalism, AIDS, pornography, drug abuse, and homosexual activism have fragmented and polarized our communities.? [includes rush transcript]

“He Should Have Known” – Mother of Woman Murdered by Rapist Says Huckabee Should Not Have Ordered His Release from Jail
19 Dec 2007
We speak with Lois Davidson. Her daughter Carol Sue Shields was murdered by Wayne Dumond in 2000 after he was released by Mike Huckabee. As governor of Arkansas, Huckabee aggressively pushed for the early release of Dumond, a convicted rapist, in 1999. Huckabee made the decision despite being warned by numerous women that Dumond had sexually assaulted them or their family members and would likely strike again. [includes rush transcript]

CIA to Hand Over Videotape Docs After Congress Threatens Subpoenas
19 Dec 2007
The CIA has announced it will begin handing over documents to Congress about the destruction of videotapes showing the interrogation of two prisoners held in secret jails. The announcement came after the House Intelligence Committee threatened to subpoena agency officials if they wouldn’t appear before the committee voluntarily. We speak with House Judiciary Chair John Conyers and former CIA analyst Ray McGovern. [includes rush transcript]

Headlines for December 20, 2007
19 Dec 2007
EPA Overrules 17 States on Limiting Gas Emissions in Cars, CIA Relents on Tape Documents After Subpoena Threat, 12 Killed in Iraq Suicide Bombing, Turkey: U.S. Intel Helped Attack on Kurds, Justice Dept. Skips Contractor Rape Hearing, Freed Gitmo Prisoners Arrested on Return to Britain, Audit: Cuba Sanctions Harsher Than Iran, North Korea, Ex-Military Officers Sentenced in Argentina, Cynthia McKinney Announces Green Party Run, Israel Appears to Reject Hamas Truce Offer

Military Contractor CACI Accused of Widespread Abuse in Suit Brought By 256 Prisoners Held in Iraqi Jails
18 Dec 2007
256 prisoners held at prisons in Iraq, including Abu Ghraib, filed a lawsuit on Monday against the private military contractor, CACI. The suit alleges the prisoners were repeatedly sodomized, threatened with rape, kept naked in their cells, subjected to electric shock, attacked by unmuzzled dogs and subjected to serious pain inflicted on sensitive body parts. The suit alleges that employees of CACI directed soldiers to mistreat the prisoners.

EXCLUSIVE…Blackwater Sued Again For Sept. 9th Attack, Five Iraqis Dead, Ten Wounded
18 Dec 2007
The Center for Constitutional Rights is filing another lawsuit today against the private military firm Blackwater—this time for a shooting in Baghdad on September 9th that left five people dead and ten injured. The lawsuit is being filed on behalf of the family members of one those killed in the shooting. We speak with attorney Susan Burke. [includes rush transcript]

TV BROADCAST EXCLUSIVE: Iraqi Witnesses, Victims Describe Blackwater Shooting in Harrowing Detail
18 Dec 2007
Democracy Now! broadcasts, for the first time on television, graphic new details about Blackwater’s Sept. 16th shooting in Nisoor Square in Baghdad. We hear from three Iraqis who were caught up in the attack: A traffic policeman who witnessed the shootings up close and tried to help the victims. A computer technician on his way to buy a gift who was shot in the arm. And a doctor whose wife and son were shot and burnt to death in the attack.

Headlines for December 19, 2007
18 Dec 2007
Report: Admin Lawyers Discussed Destroying CIA Tapes, Judge Orders Hearing on Whether Tape Destruction Defied Court, FCC OKs Laxer Media Ownership Rules, Senate Approves $70B in War Funding, House Passes Energy Bill, Fed Mortgage Plan Excludes Subprime Homeowners, U.S. Denies Backing Turkish Raid on Kurds, FARC to Release 3 Hostages to Venezuela, Leaders Gather for MERCOSUR Summit, UN Calls for Death Penalty Moratorium, Huckabee Denies Equating Homosexuality, Necrophilia

BROADCAST EXCLUSIVE: Yemeni Man Imprisoned at CIA “Black Sites” Tells His Story of Kidnapping and Torture
17 Dec 2007
Mohamed Farag Ahmad Bashmilah, a victim of the CIA rendition program—kidnapped, held in secret jails, and tortured—speaks out in his first broadcast interview. In the fall of 2003, Bashmilah was detained in Jordan and turned over to the CIA. He was eventually flown to a secret prison he later found out was in Kabul, Afghanistan. In CIA custody, Mohamed says he was held in a freezing-cold cell, interrogated, shackled, force-fed and subjected to sleep deprivation and loud music for days. He attempted suicide at least three times. He talks about his interrogators and the American psychiatrists or psychologists who also played a role. Bashmilah has brought a lawsuit against Jeppesen Dataplan—a Boeing subsidiary—accused of abetting his kidnapping. In an in-depth and detailed interview from his home in Yemen, Bashmilah tell us his harrowing story.

Headlines for December 18, 2007
17 Dec 2007
Senate Postpones Vote on Domestic Spying Bill, 300 Turkish Troops Enter Northern Iraq, U.S. Military Sharing Intelligence on Iraq With Turkey, Russia Delivers Nuclear Fuel to Iran, Ron Paul Raises Record $6 Million in a Single Day, Sen. Joe Lieberman Endorses John McCain, Huckabee Equates Environmentalism With Pornography, New Jersey Abolishes the Death Penalty, International Donors Pledge $7.4 Billion to the Palestinians, Israeli Air Strikes Kill 12 in Gaza, Fidel Castro Suggests He Might Retire, Ex-Uruguayan Dictator Accused of Crimes Against Humanity, New York Couple Convicted of Enslaving Immigrants

Spending Bill Includes $24 Billion Loan Guarantees for Nuclear Industry
16 Dec 2007
The House is set to vote Tuesday on the $500 billion 2008 Omnibus Appropriations Bill. Hidden in the bill is a major energy package that would boost government financing for the nuclear industry. It would provide loan guarantees of up to $25 billion for new nuclear reactors. We speak with Harvey Wasserman, editor of nukefree.org. [includes rush transcript]