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Global social justice movement resources
Collection of interviews and Web sites with contacts for breaking news about the global social justice movement. (Audio files in MP3 and RealAudio formats.)

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Hungry for more news from "Between The Lines?"

Many BTL interviews are excerpted from Scott Harris' WPKN program, "Counterpoint." To hear more in-depth analysis you'll rarely hear in corporate media, listen to "Counterpoint" LIVE Monday nights from 8 to 10 p.m. ET.

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Check out our
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WPKN Radio mentioned in Danny Schechter's "The News Dissector" column on independent media values. Click here to view the column on Mediachannel.org.

New Haven Advocate's
"Best of New Haven 2001"
-- Staff Picks --
Scott Harris, Best Radio News Reporter
WPKN Radio, 89.5 FM

"Giving Voice to Dissent: Bridgeport's WPKN Radio Covers The News With Left-Of-Center Takes Not Found In The Mainstream Media" Hartford Courant, Feb. 26, 2003

"The Rest of the News," New Haven Advocate, July 3, 2003


ISSUES IN-DEPTH

War And Profiteering

Those Who Dared to Come Forward
Compilation of Washington insiders speaking out on Bush administration policies and actions

Project for the New American Century's Letter to President Clinton on Iraq, Jan. 26, 1998 Urges President Clinton to remove the threat that Iraq poses by stating a strategy to do so in his "upcoming State of the Union Address."

"Iraq On The Record," U.S. Rep. Henry Waxman report, March 16, 2004

"Greenspan Testimony Highlights Bush Plan for Deliberate Federal Bankruptcy," by Michael Meurer, truthout.org, March 2, 2004

"Noam Chomsky on Middle East Conflict and U.S. War Plan Against Iraq," Between The Lines interview with Noam Chomsky, conducted by Scott Harris, for the Week Ending May 3, 2002

"The Iraq War & The Bush Administration's Pursuit of Global Domination," Counterpoint, Sept. 15, 2003

The Iraq Crisis, a Global Policy Forum, U.N. Security Council section on the 13 years of sanctions and other background of the war, the humanitarian situation, the importance of Iraq's huge oil resources, and disputes over a post-war government and reconstruction plan

"Occupation, Inc." Southern Exposure, Winter, 2003/2004

"Pipeline Politics: Oil, The Taliban, and the Political Balance of Central Asia," World Press Review Special Report, Nov.-Dec. 2001

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

"An Annotated Saddam Chronology," ZNet, Dec. 15, 2003

Civil Liberties

"The Global Gulag: Into The Shadows," by Tom Engelhardt, TomDispatch.com, April 5, 2004

"Keeping Secrets: The Bush administration is doing the public's business out of the public eye. Here's how--and why," by Christopher H. Schmitt and Edward T. Pound, U.S. News & World Report, Dec. 12, 2003

"FBI Memo: Tactics Used During Protests And Demonstrations" Federal Bureau of Investigation, Oct. 15, 2003

"F.B.I. Scrutinizes Antiwar Rallies" by Eric Lichtblau, New York Times, Nov. 23, 2003

"Fascism Anyone?" 14 Signs of Fascism, Free Inquiry Magazine, Volume 23, No. 2

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

Multi-Ethnic Issues Advocacy

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

Between
The Lines

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Between The Lines
For The Week Ending April 29, 2005

THIS WEEK'S PROGRAM

poor
  • World Bank/IMF Fail to Agree
    on Plan to Cancel Debt
    or Increase Aid to Poorest Nations

    For story text and audio, Click here!

  • With Humor and Irony,
    A Founding Member of Monty Python
    Blasts Bush and Blair's War on Terror

    For story text and audio, Click here!

  • Sister Helen Prejean Recounts How She Became
    a Leader of the U.S. Campaign
    to Abolish the Death Penalty

    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 May 3, 2005.

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

World Bank/IMF Fail to Agree
on Plan to Cancel Debt
or Increase Aid to Poorest Nations

Interview with Virginia Setshedi,
of the South African Anti-Privatization Forum,
conducted by Scott Harris

bush honors

Five years ago, tens of thousands of demonstrators staged militant protests in Washington, D.C. to oppose the policies of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund toward impoverished nations, while demanding the cancellation of crippling debt. Although the giant financial institutions have adopted some of the rhetoric of global social justice activists in the intervening years, they have not altered their neo-liberal economic model of privatization and free trade. While fewer in number, protesters in Washington again this year expressed anger and dissatisfaction with the Bank's policies -- sentiments shared by millions in the developing world.

During their spring meeting in Washington, delegates to the World Bank and IMF failed to reach agreement on canceling the debt of poor countries and increasing aid directed toward their people. Among those inside and outside the World Bank, there is growing concern that the goal established five years ago to reduce global poverty by 2015, could be undermined by right-wing ideologue and Iraq war architect Paul Wolfowitz, named by President Bush to become the Bank's next president.

Between The Lines' Scott Harris spoke with Virginia Setshedi of the Anti-Privatization Forum, based in Johannesburg, South Africa, a group that assists poor residents in Soweto to restore water and electricity service shut off by private utilities. Setshedi, who was in Washington to speak out during the meetings, explains why she is critical of World Bank/IMF development policies and her concern about the bank's future under the direction of its new president Paul Wolfowitz.

Contact the 50 Years is Enough Network at (202) IMF-BANK or visit their website at www.50years.org Visit the Anti-Privatization Forums' website at www.apf.org.za.

Related links:

With Humor and Irony,
A Founding Member of Monty Python
Blasts Bush and Blair's War on Terror

Interview with Terry Jones,
founding member of the Monty Python comedy troupe,
conducted by Scott Harris

blairbush

As the daily attacks on U.S. forces and their allies in Iraq step up after a post-election lull, increasing numbers of citizens are becoming skeptical of a White House forecast for stability and a reduction in the number of American troops in the occupied nation. With suicide bombings and kidnappings an almost daily occurrence, few western journalists dare to venture very far from their hotels in the Green security zone in Baghdad to report on the war.

And as the U.S. military switches from offensive operations to training members of the Iraqi police and military, insurgents have also changed their tactics - targeting and killing large numbers of these forces. The situation for civilians has also continued to deteriorate. The United Nations Human Rights Commission in Geneva recently reported that the number of Iraqi children suffering from malnutrition has doubled since the U.S. invasion toppled the government of Saddam Hussein in 2003.

Terry Jones, one of the founding members of the Monty Python comedy troupe has since September 11th, been writing columns in the British press highly critical of George Bush and Tony Blair's militaristic policies in the Middle East. His essays, laced with irony and humor, have now been published in the U.S. under the title, "Terry Jones' War on the War on Terror: Observations and Denunciations by a Founding Member of Monty Python." Reached by phone in London, Between The Lines' Scott Harris spoke with Jones about why he feels that the Bush-Blair policies have made the world a more dangerous place.

"Terry Jones's War on the War on Terror," is published by Nation Books.

Related links:

Sister Helen Prejean Recounts How She Became
a Leader of the U.S. Campaign
to Abolish the Death Penalty

Excerpts of a speech by Sister Helen Prejean,
death penalty opponent,
produced by Melinda Tuhus

Sister Helen Prejean is one of the country's best-known and most passionate opponents of the death penalty. She has been speaking out since the early 1980s, when she accompanied convicted murderer Patrick Sonnier to his execution by electrocution. She wrote the book "Dead Man Walking" about her experience, which later became an Academy Award-winning movie with Susan Sarandon playing Prejean in the leading role.

Sister Prejean spoke earlier this month at Yale University's Catholic chapel, where she made reference to Connecticut's death penalty law which was recently challenged and debated in the state legislature, though the law authorizing execution by lethal injection was not abolished. Serial rapist and murderer Michael Ross will be executed in Connecticut on May 11 unless a federal judge rules in the next few weeks that he was incompetent to waive his remaining appeals and choose to die. This would mark the first execution in all of New England in 45 years.

Sister Prejean's talk at Yale followed a recent report in Britain's top medical journal, The Lancet, which argued that some prisoners executed by lethal injection may feel extreme pain because they are improperly sedated as they are put to death.

For more information on Sister PreJean's campaign against the death penalty, call (504) 948-6557 or visit her website at www.prejean.org. Prejean's talk was recorded and produced by Between The Lines' Melinda Tuhus.

Related links:

This week's summary
of under-reported news

Compiled by Bob Nixon

  • The Pentagon resumes voluntary anthrax immunization program that was banned in 2004 by a court order. ("Judge: Pentagon can resume anthrax shots," Associated Press, April 7, 2005; "Soldiers Fear the Needle," Village Voice, March 23, 2005)
  • The "non-lethal" stun gun is growing in popularity, yet some law enforcement professionals worry about the unknown risks of the high-powered stun guns made by Arizona-based Taser International. ("After Shocks," Amnesty International magazine, Spring 2005)
  • Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, a prospective 2008 presidential candidate has merged his operations with a powerful Texas law firm with strong ties to the energy industry and the Bush White House, a move that will help him raise millions of dollars for his presidential campaign. ("Giuliani-Come-Lately," Grist, April 8, 2005)

DOWNLOAD this week's half-hour program of Between The Lines by clicking on one of the links below. Needs Quicktime Player or your favorite MP3 player. Note: Make sure your browser is set for streaming or download depending on your connection speed. MP3 files available until May 3, 2005

Note to our broadcast affiliates: 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
Program narration: Denise Manzari
News reader: Indu Anand
Segment producers: Melinda Tuhus
Distribution: Anna Manzo, Harry Minot, Jeff Yates, Bill Cosentino
Senior Web editor/producer: Anna Manzo
Web producer: Jeff Yates
Newswire editor: Hank Hoffman
Executive producer: Scott Harris
Theme music: Mikata


Between The Lines
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Between The Lines Week Ending 4/22/05

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Between The Lines Special Report

Speeches from "Denounce Torture: Torture and US Policy - What your government is doing in your name," Teach In at Yale University, by the Yale and New Haven chapters of Amnesty International, April 8, 2005

Mark Danner, New Yorker writer and author of "Torture and Truth," MacArthur Fellow
In RealAudio
In MP3

Barbara Olshansky, deputy director at the Center for Constitutional Rights
In RealAudio
In MP3

The Honorable John Conyers Jr., Congressman, Michigan's 14th District
In RealAudio
In MP3

U.S. Politics

"The Right's Siege Mentality," by Paul Waldman, TomPaine.com, Apr. 25, 2005

"Frist's Message Of Divisiveness," The Progress Report, Apr. 25, 2005

"That Other America: Poor Voters As Faith Voters," by Bob Burnett, Alternet, Apr. 25, 2005

"'Nuclear Option' Creates Rift In GOP Base," Los Angeles Times, Apr. 24, 2005

"The 'Nuclear Option' And The One-Party State," by Paul Street, ZNet, Apr. 23, 2005

"The One-Sided Class War: Wages Slide While Business Lines Its Pockets," by Lee Sustar, Counterpunch, Apr. 22, 2005

"How The Democrats Went To Bat For The Credit Industry," by Yoshie Furuhashi, Counterpunch, Apr. 16/17, 2005

More newswire ...

Bush Regime

"U.S. Take Brakes Off Nuke Arms Race," by Dave Zweifel, Capital Times (Madison, Wisconsin), Apr. 25, 2005

"Bush's Most Radical Plan Yet: A Sunset Commission With Hand-Picked Lobbyists," by Osha Gray Davidson, Rolling Stone, Apr. 21, 2005

More newswire ...

American Empire/War Profiteering

"Venezuela Ends Military Ties And Evicts Some U.S. Officers," Reuters, Apr. 25, 2005

"Enrollment In Army ROTC Down Past 2 School Years," Washington Post, Apr. 24, 2005

"Free Elections For Empire Or Democracy?," by James Petras, Counterpunch, Apr. 23/24, 2005

"Halliburton: Poster Child Of The War Profiteers," by Kevin Zeese, Counterpunch, Apr. 20, 2005

More newswire ...

"Postwar" Occupation of Iraq, Afghanistan

"Iraqi Troops Desert Posts As Insurgent Attacks Mount," Telegraph/UK, Apr. 25, 2005

"Terrified U.S. Soldiers Are Still Killing Civilians With Impunity, While The Dead Go Uncounted," by Patrick Cockburn, Independent/UK, Apr. 24, 2005

"Leadership Void Fuels Disarray In Iraq," Los Angeles Times, Apr. 24, 2005

"Iraq's Catch-22," by Robert Dreyfuss, TomPaine.com, Apr. 21, 2005

"Interview With Riverbend: Girl Blogger From Iraq," by Lakshmi Chaudhry, AlterNet, Apr. 20, 2005

"You Call This Normal? The New York Times In Fallujah," by Mike Whitney, Counterpunch, Apr. 18, 2005

More newswire ...

Civil Liberties/ Human Rights

"In War's Name, Public Loses Information," Boston Globe, Apr. 24, 2005

"U.S. Rights Groups Call For Special Prosecutor To Probe Torture," Agence France Presse, Apr. 24, 2005

"Human Rights Watch: U.S. Sent Up To 150 To Possible Torture Sites," Los Angeles Times, Apr. 24, 2005

"Loosening Religious Grip At U.S. Air Academy," Los Angeles Times, Apr. 24, 2005

"TSA Thwarts Terrorist Armed With Pink Plastic Purse And Teddy Bear," by John L. Smith, Las Vegas Review-Journal, Apr. 24, 2005

"The New McCarthyism," by Juan Cole, Salon.com, Apr. 23, 2005

"Free Speech...With Permission Only: A Tale Of Two Universities," by Ron Jacobs, Counterpunch, Apr. 16/17, 2005

More newswire ...

Media Issues

"New York Times Minimizes Palestinian Deaths," by Alison Weir, Counterpunch, Apr. 25, 2005

"Military Channel Reports For Duty," Christian Science Monitor, Apr. 25, 2005

"An Argument For Writers Taking Charge," by Johnny Temple, Poets & Writers, Apr. 22, 2005

"For The Press: A Time For Disobedience," by Sydney H. Schanberg, Village Voice, Apr. 19, 2005

More newswire ...

Activism

"Union To Input: Outgo," by Rory O'Connor, AlterNet, Apr. 25, 2005

"Backing Democrats Has Pulled The Antiwar Movement To The Right," by Elizabeth Schulte, Counterpunch, Apr. 23/24, 2005

"It's A Wobbly Year: Paul Buhle Interviewed On The IWW's Centenary," by Derek Seidman, Left Hook, Apr. 23, 2005

"Counting On Marla," by Tai Moses, AlterNet, Apr. 18, 2005

More newswire ...

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