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Between The Lines

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Between The Lines
For The Week Ending July 4, 2003

THIS WEEK'S PROGRAM

  • Federal Court Upholds Secret Detentions;
    Another Victory for White House
    Measures Eroding Civil Liberties

    For story text and audio, Click here!

  • As El Salvador Prepares
    for 2004 Presidential Election,
    U.S. Officials Work
    to Discredit Leftist Party

    For story text and audio, Click here!

  • Portions of EPA Report
    on Global Warming Deleted
    by Bush Administration 'Spin Doctors'

    For story text and audio, Click here!

  • Underreported News Summary
    from Around the World

    For full summary and audio, Click here!
LISTEN to this week's half-hour program of Between The Lines by clicking on one of the links below. MP3 files available until July 8, 2003.

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

Federal Court Upholds Secret Detentions;
Another Victory for White House
Measures Eroding Civil Liberties

Interview with Arthur Spitzer,
legal director of the ACLU's Washington, D.C. office
conducted by Scott Harris

In a 2 to 1 ruling on June 17, a federal appeals court in Washington, D.C. upheld the Bush administration's right to keep secret the names of some 700 immigrants arrested by the Justice Department after the Sept. 11 attacks on New York City and Washington, D.C.

The ruling, expected to be appealed, is yet another victory for the Bush administration, whose rewriting of judicial procedures has been challenged by civil liberties groups. Speaking for the White House, Attorney General John Ashcroft has cited the war against terrorism as the justification for a steady erosion of rights accorded to immigrants and citizens. Recent court decisions have affirmed the Bush administration's right to hold secret hearings; indefinitely detain and deny access to attorneys to U.S. citizens labeled "enemy combatants" and declared that Afghan prisoners held at the U.S. Guantanamo Naval base in Cuba are not subject to protections embodied in U.S. constitutional law.

Last month, the Justice Department's own inspector general released a report documenting many abuses committed against immigrants held in secret detention, confirming the fears many opponents of these measures had expressed about the dangers inherent in secret imprisonment. Between The Lines' Scott Harris spoke with Arthur Spitzer, legal director of the ACLU's National Capitol Area Office, who examines the long term impact these series of court decisions may have on America's judicial system and civil liberties guaranteed under the Bill of Rights.

For more information, call the ACLU at (212) 549-2500 or visit their website at: www.aclu.org

Related links

As El Salvador Prepares
for 2004 Presidential Election,
U.S. Officials Work
to Discredit Leftist Party

Interview with Burke Stansbury,
national program director
of the Committee in Solidarity
with the People of El Salvador,
conducted by Melinda Tuhus

During the 1980s, the U.S. government's military and economic support for repressive right-wing regimes in Central America, challenged by guerrilla movements and civil society, resulted in hundreds of thousands of mostly civilian deaths.

Under terms that ended El Salvador's civil war in the early 1990s, the rebel Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front, or FMLN, became a legal political party. It is now contending for power with the conservative ARENA party, founded by the leader of El Salvador's infamous death squads and representing that country's financial elite. ARENA, a staunch supporter of U.S. policy, controls the presidency.

In preparation for a presidential election in March 2004, the FMLN is holding primary elections on July 27. Against this backdrop, the U.S. is stepping up criticism of the FMLN. America's ambassador to El Salvador, Rose Likins, recently attacked FMLN positions on a number of issues and said that U.S. investment could be withdrawn from the country if an FMLN president were elected. Underscoring Washington's position, Daniel Fisk, U.S. deputy assistant secretary of state for hemispheric affairs, publicly expressed his distrust in the FMLN's "commitment to democracy in El Salvador." He also declared in his June 18 comments, that the FMLN's discourse "looks as if it were written in Havana."

Between The Lines' Melinda Tuhus spoke with Burke Stansbury, national program organizer with CISPES, the Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador, about the growing popularity of the FMLN and subsequent threats from U.S. officials.

For more information on the campaign to oppose U.S. intervention in El Salvadoran politics, call CISPES at (212) 465-8115 or visit their website at: www.cispes.org

Portions of EPA Report
on Global Warming Deleted
by Bush Administration 'Spin Doctors'

Interview with Kert Davies,
research director with Greenpeace USA,
conducted by Scott Harris

A recently released report from the Environmental Protection Agency was the subject of much scrutiny after press reports disclosed that, under White House pressure, the agency had deleted important information on global warming. The EPA's state of the world's environment report had originally included references to several studies which concluded that global warming, in part, is produced by pollution emitted from factories and power plants. Before the White House changes, the report had also included documentation on how global temperatures had dramatically increased over the past decade, in contrast to climate change over the previous 1,000 years. Bush administration officials, however, attempted to replace this section of the EPA report with portions of a study partly financed by the American Petroleum Institute, which raised doubts about the origin of climate change.

EPA administrator Christy Todd Whitman, who has resigned her position effective June 27, denied that the editing process had compromised the integrity of the report. But former and current agency staff have complained that changes demanded by the White House undermined the credibility of the EPA to accurately report on existing scientific research.

Between The Lines' Scott Harris spoke with Kert Davies, research director with Greenpeace USA, who takes a critical look at this episode indicating that a conflict of interest between the Bush administration's political supporters in energy production companies and the public interest was the origin of these actions taken to manipulate a government report.

Contact Greenpeace by calling (202) 462-1177 or visit their website at: www.greenpeaceusa.org

Related links

This week's summary
of under-reported news

Compiled by Bob Nixon

  • Civil liberties groups fear the Transportation Security Administration's new computer system, assigning airline passengers a risk profile, will be used to target political dissidents. ("What's Your Risk Score?" In These Times, June 23, 2003)
  • Critics decry Dallas Republican billionaire's attempt to gain approval to run a radioactive waste dump in Texas without basic security measures. ("A Radioactive Recipe for Profit,'" Mother Jones, May 22, 2003).
  • Progressives beefing up coalitions at the state level to counterbalance the corporate-funded American Legislative Exchange Council, which is pushing bills influenced by oil, gas, chemical and pharmaceutical corporations. ("ALEC meets its match," The Nation, June 9, 2003)

DOWNLOAD this week's half-hour program of Between The Lines by clicking on one of the links below. Note: Make sure your browser is set for streaming or download depending on your connection speed. MP3 files available until July 8.

Note to our broadcast subscribers: We are now offering FTP access for faster, more reliable download of our broadcast quality files. Please call Anna Manzo at (203) 268-8446 ext. 2, to register for FTP logon access or send feedback to us at betweenthelines@snet.net.

Credits:
Senior news editor: Bob Nixon
Segment producer: Melinda Tuhus
Program narration: Sasha Summer Cousineau
News reader: Denise Manzari
Distribution: Anna Manzo, Harry Minot, Jeff Yates
Web editor/producer: Anna Manzo
Executive producer: Scott Harris

... MORE ...

Last Week's Program

Between The Lines Week Ending 6/27/03

Bush Re-Election Issues

"There's a Method to Bush's Madness," by Dave Zweifel, Madison Capital Times June 23, 2003

"Deflation Risks Bigger Than Optimists Let On," by Robert B. Reich, USA Today, June 23, 2003

"Lawmakers Begin Iraq Intelligence Hearings," by Walter Pincus and Dana Priest, The Washington Post, June 19, 2003

"Dean, Kerry: 'Bush Misled America on War'," Independent Investigation Sought of President Bush, By Mike Glover, Associated Press, June 18, 2003

"Word That U.S. Doubted Iraq Would Use Gas," By James Risen, New York Times, June 18, 2003

"Ex-CIA Director Says Administration Stretched Facts on Iraq," by John Diamond, USA TODAY, June 18, 2003

"Impeachable Offense," by Geov Parrish, Seattle Weekly/Alternet.org, June 18, 2003

"Reason to Deceive:WMD Lies Could Be the New Watergate," by Cynthia Cotts, The Village Voice, June 18, 2003

"Leading Democrat Slams Republican Move to Close Hearings on US' Iraq Intelligence," Agence France-Presse, June 12, 2003

"Missing Weapons Of Mass Destruction: Is Lying About The Reason For War An Impeachable Offense?" by John W. Dean, FindLaw's Writ, June 6, 2003

"Shoulder to Shoulder and Stabbed in the Back," by Robin Cook, Britain's former foreign minister, Los Angeles Times, June 6, 2003

"Wolfowitz:'Iraq War Was About Oil,'" Furor shines spotlight on interpretation of weapons intelligence, by George Wright, The Guardian, June 4, 2003

War Crimes Prosecution

"Short: I was Briefed on Bush and Blair's Secret War Pact," by Patrick Wintour, Chief Political Correspondent, The Guardian, June 18, 2003

American Empire/War Profiteering in Iraq

"Public Citizen Report Exposes Contractor Bechtel as Threat to Iraqi Environment, Human Rights and Basic Services," www.citizen.org

"Imperial America and War," by John Bellamy Foster, Monthly Review, May 28, 2003

"Another Scandalous No-Bid Contract Makes Us Look Like Fools," by Pat Gerber, CommonDreams.org, May 26, 2003

"Pentagon Hands Major Iraq Deal to Scandal-Ridden WorldCom," The Star Online, May 22, 2003

"War Profiteering," by The Nation editors, April 24, 2003

Postwar Occupation of Iraq

"Iraq's Lethal Peace," The Guardian, June 16, 2003

"The Next War: Iraq," By Michael R. Gordon, New York Times, June 13, 2003

Civil Liberties

"Germany In 1933: The Easy Slide Into Fascism," By Bernard Weiner, The Crisis Papers, June 9, 2003

Between The Lines Special Reports in RealAudio

"Allegations of War Profiteering Leveled Against Halliburton and Other Companies With Close Ties to White House," Charlie Cray, corporate reform campaigner at Citizen Works, Week Ending 5/23/03

"Campaign to Impeach President Bush Will Require Broad Public Support," law professor Francis Boyle, March 7, 2003

Multi-Ethnic Issues Advocacy

Dr. Earl Ofari Hutchinson's Commentaries, The Hutchinson Report
and in Audio (needs RealPlayer)

 


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