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Between The Lines Archive
For The Week Ending Dec. 8, 2000


THIS WEEK'S PROGRAM

LISTEN to this week's half-hour program of Between The Lines by clicking here or any of the individual interview segments below (All in RealAudio, needs RealPlayer 7 or 8.)

This week we present Between The Lines' summary of under-reported news stories and:

GOP's Injection of Polarizing Politics of Anger, Resentment into Election 2000 End Game Dangerous
Nation Columnist Says Bush, Gore Camps Implicitly Agree That if Counting Continues, Gore Will Win
Interview by Scott Harris.

George W. Bush pronounced himself the winner of the presidential election on Nov. 26, shortly after his Florida campaign co-chair and Secretary of State Katherine Harris certified the Texas Governor's victory by a slim 537-vote margin. But despite calls by the Bush campaign for a Gore concession, the 2000 election is headed to the Supreme Court for a ruling on the legitimacy of a deadline extension for inclusion of manually recounted ballots mandated by Florida's highest court.

Refusing to throw in the towel, Vice President Al Gore was fighting a two-front war: battling in the courts for a tally of all votes cast in several key Florida counties and working to shore up public support for what may be a protracted legal battle.

Between The Lines' Scott Harris spoke with Bruce Shapiro, contributing editor with the Nation Magazine, who examines the strategies of the Bush and Gore campaigns as they pursue victory in this year's extraordinary presidential election.

To learn how you can act locally on this issue, see www.inaugurauction.org to get information on demonstrations/actions planned at the Jan. 20, 2001 inauguration ceremonies in Washington, D.C.

Related interviews, articles:

  • "Raising the Stakes.", Bruce Shapiro's Nation magazine special report
  • "If the Vote Were Flawless..." (Miami Herald, Dec. 2, 2000, by Anabelle De Gale, Lila Arzua and Curtis Morgan). An analysis commissioned by The Herald of voting patterns in each of the state's 5,885 precincts suggests how Florida likely would have gone to Al Gore -- by a slim 23,000 votes -- rather than George W. Bush, the officially certified victor by the wispy margin of 537. Statewide, at least 185,000 ballots were discarded. If those ballots had been included and those voters behaved like their neighbors in the same precincts, Bush would have gotten about 78,000 (42 percent) of the uncounted votes and Gore would have gotten more than 103,000 (56 percent).
  • "Racial Discrimination Against Florida Voters Unexamined in Election Controversy", Between The Lines Interview with Earl Ofari Hutchinson, for week ending 12/01/00
  • Allegations of voting rights violations need investigation (FAIR Action Alert, Nov. 17, 2000)

New Assassination Attempt Against Fidel Castro, Same Old Faces
Interview by Denise Manzari.

While attending the Ibero-American summit in Panama, Cuban President Fidel Castro announced at a press conference that there was an assassination attempt being plotted against him. On Nov. 17, Panamanian authorities arrested 72-year-old Luis Posada Carilles, the admitted mastermind behind a series of bombings in Havana in 1997 that killed an Italian tourist. Also arrested were Cuban Americans Pedro Remon and Guillermo Novo -- both members of the defunct anti-Castro terrorist group, Omega 7 -- and a fourth person who entered Panama with a passport in the name of Manuel Diaz.

Diaz had another passport identifying him as Gaspar Jimenez, a Miami resident with a long record of anti-Castro violence. Since then, two more arrests have been made: a Panamanian chauffeur named Jose Hurtado and a Cuban-born businessman and Panama City resident named Cesar Matamoros. Panamanian police on Nov. 22 confirmed they had found 18 pounds of plastic explosives buried in a vacant lot near the international airport close to the house of Jose Hurtado, the exiles' driver.

Although Cuban officials claimed the four planned to shoot down Castro's plane with two surface-to-air missiles, so far, none has been found. Philip Agee is a former Central Intelligence Agency officer who served in Latin America. He now works in solidarity with Cuba and spoke with Between The Lines' Denise Manzari from his home in Havana about these arrests.

Philip Agee is author of "The CIA in Cuba" and "On The Run," his fifth book.

Campaign to Evict U.S. Military from Vieques, Puerto Rico Continues
Interview by Melinda Tuhus

Although out of the media spotlight in recent months, the struggle to force the U.S. Navy to end its bombing and occupation of the Puerto Rican island of Vieques continues. For more than 60 years, the U.S. military has used the island for military training exercises despite objections from the people of Vieques. Activists renewed the decades-long fight to end the military exercises on the island in April 1999 after a civilian security guard was killed by a stray bomb. In response, hundreds of protesters occupied the bombing range, serving as human shields. After a year of occupation, federal agents forcibly removed more than 200 protesters on May 4th.

Earlier this year, the Clinton Administration negotiated an accord with the governor of Puerto Rico, which resulted in a presidential directive. Among other things, the directive called for much of the land currently occupied by the military base to be returned to civilian use, but Congress failed to ratify it. The directive also scheduled a controversial referendum to determine the future status of the island's military installation.

Between The Lines' Melinda Tuhus spoke with Andres Tomas Contreras, a Methodist minister and a member of the Fellowship of Reconciliation, who provides an update on the ongoing campaign to evict the U.S. Navy from Vieques.

Contact the Fellowship of Reconciliation, Nyack, N.Y. at (845) 358-4601 or visit their website at www.forusa.org.
Additional information can be found at www.viequeslibre.org

This week's summary of under-reported news
Compiled by Bob Nixon and Denise Manzari

  • U.S. electroshock technology -- which leaves no visible trace of torture -- now the weapon of choice among military dictators and other human rights abusers. (The New Internationalist, Sept. 2000)
  • Craig Rosebraugh, the self-appointed public relations flak for militant animal rights movement, now target of FBI investigations and wiretaps. (In These Times: Oct. 16. 2000)
  • Giant Stafford, Calif. redwood tree known as "Luna," in which Julia Butterfly Hill sat for two years campaigning for forest protection, attacked by a chainsaw-wielding saboteur. (Circle of Life Foundation)

... MORE ...

Between The Lines/WPKN Radio Pre-Election Issues Forums:

The Spook Who Would Be Congressman

Growing Economic Inequality, The Failed Drug War & Prison Industrial Complex

Progressives Debate: Will Nader's Candidacy Shock the System Leftward or Revive Reagan-Era Politics?

Issues the Major Parties Agree on and Therefore Refuse to Debate

Resources

"CEO/Worker Pay Gap: The Neglected Campaign Issue"

"Divided Decade: Economic Disparity at the Century's Turn"

The Sentencing Project reports on racial disparity in the prison industrial complex.

 


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