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Democracy Now!
May 2003
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 5/28
Hour 1:
First it was Iraq, now Iran. We speak with Middle East expert
Dilip Hiro as Washington sets its sights on the second member
of the so-called axis-of-evil; A New Report Reveals that the
Bush Administration had Planned to Invade Iraq as Early as
December. White House officials told the American people up
until March that that the president had not decided to use
military force against Iraq and would only consider it as
a last resort; You Back the Attack, We’ll Bomb Who We
Want! - A collection of remixed war posters. Antiwar satirist
and animation writer, Micah Ian Wright, joins us in our studio
to discuss his new book;
Hour 2:
Arcata City Council Criminalizes Compliance with USA Patriot
Act: Over 100 cities have passed resolutions condemning the
Patriot Act, but a small city in California has taken it a
step further; Supreme Court Refuses to Hear an Appeal on the
Hundreds of Secret Deportation Hearings for Immigrants Detained
after 911: The decision is a victory for the Bush administration.
Government Investigates Allegations of Abuse in Two INS facilities:
Behind the INS Curtain, a report from Noah Reibel; Howard
Zinn and Arundhati Roy: A Conversation Between Two of the
Most Pre-Eminent Social Critics of our Time: “One of
the reasons for the acceptance of the war by so many Americans…is
that the American population has had concealed from it the
human consequences of what we’ve been doing.”
5/26
Hour 1:
Memorial Day Special: We speak with a group of Ploughshares
activists. For years these Catholics have tried to raise awareness
about the brutality of war and how specific warships, weapons,
and bases are complicit in the killing of innocent civilians;
Three Dominican nuns are awaiting sentencing for plowshares
action in Colorado; Five members of the pacifist Catholic
Worker Movement face 10 years in prison for peace protests
at Shannon Airport in Ireland; Memorial Day Special: Remembering
veteran and peace warrior Phil Berrigan
Hour 2:
“Afghan Massacre: The Convoy of Death,” Part 2:
Award-Winning Director/Producer Jamie Doran Alleges a Media
Cover-Up of US Complicity in the Massacre of up to 3,000 Taliban
Prisoners;
5/23
Hour 1:
U.N. Security Council Lifts a Decade of Devastating Sanctions
Responsible for the Deaths of up to One Million Iraqi Children:
The resolution gives the U.S. administration an international
legal mandate to rule Iraq and control its oil until a viable
Iraqi government is established; Was the Invasion of Iraq
the Deadliest U.S. Military Campaign for Civilians Since Vietnam?
We speak with Christian Science Monitor reporter Peter Ford
who estimates that 10,000 civilians may have died in the U.S.
invasion of Iraq. This translates into 33 Iraqi civilian deaths
for every U.S. soldier death; U.S. Threatens to Withhold AIDS
Drugs from African Countries That Bar Genetically Engineered
Foods: Greenpeace has launched a campaign against Senate Majority
Leader, Bill Frist for backing a bill that attempts to coerce
African nations into accepting food by suggesting that it
could be tied to receipt of AIDS prevention funding; Children’s
Programming is at Risk from a Concentration of Ownership in
the Media. As the FCC is poised to unleash the largest wave
of media consolidation, a new study has found that concentration
of media ownership leads to a dramatic decrease in children’s
programming;
Hour 2: “Afghan Massacre: The Convoy of Death”:
Broadcast for the First Time Ever in the U.S. The film provides
eyewitness testimony that U.S. troops were complicit in the
massacre of thousands of Taliban prisoners during the Afghan
War;
5/22
(Now Two Hours!)
Hour 1: Telecommunications Industry Has Lavished FCC
Commissioners with Millions of Dollars in Travel Gifts: the
revelations come as the FCC is about adopt new media consolidation
rules favorable to industry giants; FCC Commissioner Michael
Copps Speaks at the Final Public Hearing Before FCC Overhauls
Decades-Old Rules Governing Media Consolidation; The Peaceful
Mbuti People Call on the UN to Prosecute Government and Rebel
Fighters as Civil War Rages in the Congo;
Hour 2: Physician, Humanist, Nobel Peace Prize Nominee and
impassioned advocate for Nuclear Disarmament, Helen Caldicott,
on the Human Face of the Invasion of Iraq;
5/20
(Now Two Hours!)
Hour 1: “This is not American troops going after
Saddam’s folks. This is violence in the streets and
it’s out of control.”: John Alpert and Sharif
Abdel Kouddous join us in our studio to discuss their recent
visit to Baghdad; In an Exclusive U.S. Interview, Democracy
Now! Talks with the Widow of the Al Jazeera Journalist Who
Died When U.S. Forces Shelled His Office in Baghdad : “Look
at the American Dream and how it was Implemented Here: We
Lost Our Happiness, We Lost Our Lives, We Lost Our Liberty,”
says Dima Tahboub who is suing Iraq war commander General
Tommy Franks for war crimes; U.S. Bombing of Basra Kills One
Iraqi Boy and Wounds His Brother. Their Mother, Umm Haider,
Speaks About Her Family’s Plight;
Hour 2: Will changes in the nation’s media ownership
rules mark "the beginning of the end of our democracy"?
A debate between the publisher of the Seattle Times and a
Vice President at the Tribune Co. which owns 15 newspapers
including the Los Angeles Times and Newsday as well as over
25 television stations; Who, What, When, Where, How? Did the
U.S. Media Follow the Basic Rules of Journalism, or did they
“Follow the Flag”? Journalism professor Robert
Jensen argues the U.S. media would fail Journalism 101;
5/19
(Now Two Hours!)
Hour 1: The U.S. faces wave of media mergers and unprecedented
consolidation if FCC relaxes media ownership rules. FCC Chairman
Michael Powell last week refused to delay the upcoming June
2nd vote on media ownership rules. Critics say relaxed rules
will lead to more mergers, leaving a few huge companies in
control of what people see, hear and read; Dissident FCC Commissioner
Jonathan S. Adelstein speaks out against media ownership deregulation.
Jonathan S. Adelstein, one of five Commissioners on the FCC,
has been attending public hearings across the country to find
out the public's views about FCC media ownership rules. We
listen to a speech he gave on April 26th at San Francisco
City Hall; Indonesian military launches a massive attack on
separatist movement in Aceh. Indonesian fighter jets bombed
the Free Aceh Movement rebels and scores of troops began parachuting
into Aceh in what is expected to be Indonesia's biggest military
operation since its invasion of East Timor in 1975;
Hour 2: Harlem Woman Dies After Botched Police Drug Raid
Alberta Spruill, 57, became the fifth New Yorker since the
fall to be caught in a wrongful "no-knock raid."
All are black. We talk with the Rev. Al Sharpton and Lt. Adams
from 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement Who Care;"The Ballot
or the Bullet. It's Liberty or Death. It's Freedom for Everybody
or Freedom for Nobody": Malcolm X would have been 78
years old today. We'll hear his famous speech, "The Ballot
or the Bullet" recorded in Detroit in 1964 a year before
he was assassinated.
5/15
(Now Two Hours!)
First Hour: Vinnell Corporation: The link between oil
fields, Saudi troops, "no Jews" clauses, coup attempts
in Grenada, and Monday's car bombings in Saudi Arabia; One
third of the Texas state legislature flees the state and takes
refuge in a Holiday Inn in Oklahoma;
Second Hour: “Instant-Mix Imperial Democracy, Buy One
Get One Free”: award-winning Indian author Arundhati
Roy addresses a packed audience at Riverside Church in Harlem
as “a slave who presumes to criticize her king.”;
5/14
(Now Two Hours!)
First Hour: UN Security Council to discuss US proposal
that would lift the sanctions on Iraq and give US forces full
control of Iraq’s oil; Apartheid Victims Are Still Suffering:
Study Finds Blacks are Getting Poorer and Whites are Getting
Richer, and an Activist Who Lost Both His Arms in a Government
Assassination Attempt Says a $4,000 Government Reparations
Payment is Not Enough;
Second Hour: Operation Strangelove: "Stop Cowboy Diplomacy!"
In a form of protest against the Bush administration and his
polices of unilaterlism and preemptive strikes Stanley Kubrick's
classic Cold War satire will be screened tonight in over 40
cities in an action dubbed Operation Strangelove; As Washington
& Seoul prepare for talks on North Korea, Noam Chomsky
discusses U.S.-Korean relations;
5/13
(Now Two Hours!)
First Hour: Britain?s longest serving MP Tom Dalyell
criticized for calling Bush administration a cabal?; U.S.
sends chief weapons search team home empty-handed; The Philippines:
the next front in the war on terror?;
Second Hour: Gore Vidal on the “United States of Amnesia,”
9/11, the 2000 Election and the War in Iraq;
5/9
(Now Two Hours!)
First Hour: Cop takes midnight photos of pacifist teacher’s
classroom, then Rush Limbaugh posts them on his website; President
Bush may invoke executive privilege to keep 911 documents
away from Congressional investigators: We’ll talk to
a man who lost his wife in the attacks and is preparing to
sue the White House; Wounded Knee II, 30 years later: American
Indian Movement ended its occupation of the village of Wounded
Knee in May, 1973; U.S. government land grabs continue today;
President Bush’s daughters are again in the news for
their alleged drug use, but its mostly people of color who
go to jail for drugs: as the Rockefeller drug laws turn 30,
celebrities and activists vow to overturn them;
Second Hour: Is it to protect mothers, or undermine Roe v.
Wade? As Mother’s Day approaches, we’ll hear about
one of the latest bills Republicans have introduced; Mothers
in Prison: 2 million children in the US have a parent in jail;
we’ll hear children reading their Mother’s Day
Cards to their moms in prison; Mothers As Activists: Women
organize Mother’s Day rallies, actions and celebrations
around the country;
5/8
(Now Two Hours!)
First Hour: Looks like news, sounds like news –
but paid for by drug companies: Morley Safer of 60 Minutes
introduced hundreds of fake “news breaks” broadcast
on public television; CNN’s Aaron Brown and CBS’
Walter Cronkite may back out after a news expose revealed
the scheme; Global AIDS, TB and Malaria Fund facing massive
shortfall in funding: the US has given $200 million out of
a requested $3.5 billion per year;
Second Hour: Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz secretly create new Pentagon-based
intelligence unit: Seymour Hersh examines the role the Office
of Special Plans in the lead-up to invading Iraq; Harsh New
York Rockefeller drug laws turn 30: Hip hop pioneer Russell
Simmons & Anthony Papa who served 12 years for a first-time
offense call for repeal of the laws;
5/7
(Now Two Hours!)
First Hour: “At least when Saddam was here there
may not have been freedom but there was security: Democracy
Now! producer Sharif Abdel Kouddous reports from streets of
Baghdad; As President Bush names a new ruler of Iraq, humanitarian
groups say the US is more concerned with building an administration
than with the health and well-being of the people: Doctors
without Borders says the US is breaking international law;
Iraqi civilians sue General Tommy Franks for war crimes: we’ll
hear from their lawyer in Belgium; Survivors of the worst
industrial accident in world history to confront Dow Chemical
at shareholder’s meeting: over 20,000 people were killed
in Bhopal, India;
Second Hour: Governments across Latin America have launched
investigations after it has been revealed that a US company
is obtaining personal information on millions of citizens
in the region and selling it to the Bush administration. The
company? ChoicePoint – the same company that disenfranchised
thousands of people in Florida because their names resembled
the names of felons; Consumer advocate Ralph Nader criticizes
President Bush’s proposed $550 billion tax cut;
5/6
(Now Two Hours!)
First Hour: "It's clear that Islam is on the way
to disappearing”: the words of Israeli Tourism Minister
Benny Elon, who is set to lobby Christian fundamentalists
close to President Bush against the Middle East peace plan;
U.S. hires Christian fundamentalists to produce news for Iraqis:
the studio runs a news service “dedicated to transmitting
the evidence of God's presence in the world today.";
Second Hour: Anti-Apartheid leader Walter Sisulu dies at
the age of 90: Speaker of the South African National Assembly
Frene Ginwala talks about the man who worked quietly behind
the scenes as Nelson Mandela became the public face of the
mass liberation movement; “The Bookie of Virtue”:
Moral crusader and former drug czar Bill Bennett made millions
lecturing people on morality—and blew $8 million on
high stakes gambling; Inside the secret hearings of Joseph
McCarthy: Newly released documents shed light on the questioning
of Aaron Copland, Langston Hughes and others;
5/2
(Now Two Hours!)
First Hour: Did the Commander in Chief go AWOL for
a year when he was in the reserves?: As President Bush co-pilots
a Navy plane onto an aircraft carrier, we speak with biographer
Bill Minutaglio about GW’s checkered military past;
“The Iron Triangle: The Secret History of the Carlyle
Group”: Author Dan Briody connects the dots between
the Bush family, the Saudi royal family, Osama bin Laden's
family and Donald Rumsfeld's inner circle;
Second Hour: The Secrets of September 11, what is the White
House hiding? A conversation with Newsweek investigative reporter
Michael Isikoff; Did Donald Rumsfeld aid North Korea’s
nuclear program?: A new report reveals Rumsfeld was on board
of Zurich firm ABB which sold North Korea two nuclear reactors;
Occidental Petroleum sued for role in civilian massacre in
Colombia; Celebrations continue in Vieques following the departure
of the U.S. military;
5/1
(Now Two Hours!)
First Hour: U.S.-backed Middle East peace plan released:
A debate between Electronic Intifada and AIPAC; Vieques celebrates
the US Navy’s withdrawal from the Puerto Rican Island:
Concerns grow over environmental cleanup after 50 years of
military testing; To mark May Day, protests planned against
oil companies, weapons manufacturers and at government buildings:
We go to London for a report on protests there; Could you
go to jail for hosting a party or concert where a guest uses
drugs? ACLU warns of abuse of controversial drug law snuck
into Amber Alert legislation; Poet Jayne Cortez reads work
at conference on women & war;
Second Hour: Alice Walker, Kurt Vonnegut, Danny Glover, James
Earl Jones and others read from Howard Zinn's "A People's
History of the United States" Part two of two-hour special
commemorating the millionth copy of the classic book sold;
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