BETWEEN THE LINES
A weekly radio newsmagazine

WHO WE ARE

Between The Lines History

Production staff


ARCHIVES

Past programs (text/audio)

"Between The Lines Q&A"/Transcripts

Search The Archives

[If you don't already have the FREE RealPlayer 8 Basic, then download it here.]


BROADCAST SCHEDULE

Click here to find a radio station which broadcasts Between The Lines near you.


ACTIVIST RESOURCES

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.)

Between The Lines at the World Social Forum
Click here to download audio files, view photos from
the 2006 World Social Forum in Caracas, Venezuela.


SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION

Get "Between The Lines" delivered right to your desktop! For more information, click here.

To sign up for Between The Lines Q&A, a weekly interview transcript with RealAudio link, send an email by clicking here!

To sign up for Between The Lines Weekly Summary, a summary of the week's program with RealAudio link, send an email by clicking here!

Listener/Activist Network Subscriptions

Downloadable, MP3 broadcast quality audio files now available. Please contact us for our distribution schedule.


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.

Listen during the above time slot by clicking here!

Scott Harris' "Counterpoint" talk show

Between The Lines Executive Producer Scott Harris' live, 2-hour "Counterpoint" program is now archived in its entirety on The White Rose Society website at www.whiterosesociety.org

For downloadable MP3s, Click here!
(Please note that this is an automated recording from WPKN's webcast Monday nights between 8-10 p.m. ET, and may include portions of other programs preceding and following "Counterpoint.")

Check out our
collection
of selected in-depth interviews and other audio collectibles on our distribution production company's site at www.squeakywheel.net


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

"The Future of Iraq: The Spoils of War," Blood and oil: How the West will profit from Iraq's most precious commodity, by Danny Fortson, Andrew Murray-Watson and Tim Webb, The Independent/UK, Jan. 7, 2007

"Cheney is Longtime Bad News for U.S.," by John Nichols, by the Madison Capital Times (Wisconsin), Jan. 16, 2007

"Bush administration provokes open war on Iran: Irbil raid, and other operations, authorized "several months ago," by Larry Chin, Global Research, Jan. 15, 2007

"Iran: The Next War," by James Bamford, Rolling Stone, July 24, 2006

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

"Martial Law Threat is Real," by Dave Lindorff, commondreams.org, July 27, 2007

"ACLU: US Constitution in Grave Danger,"United Press International, July 25, 2007

"Old-line Republican warns 'something's in the works' to trigger a police state," by Muriel Kane, Rawstory.com July 19, 2007

"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

"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

Between
The Lines

Home | Archives | About Between The Lines | Search BTL Archives
Broadcast Schedule | Contact us | Squeaky Wheel Productions

Between The Lines
For The Week Ending Aug. 17, 2007

THIS WEEK'S PROGRAM
  • Pro-War Pundits Declare
    Iraq Troop Surge a Success

    For story text and audio, Click here!

  • Congress Moves to Finance
    New Nuclear Power Plants

    For story text and audio, Click here!

  • Wall Street Journal Takeover
    Expands Murdoch Media Empire

    For story text and audio, Click here!

  • Underreported News Summary
    from Around the World

    For full summary, 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 Aug. 22, 2007.

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

Pro-War Pundits Declare
Iraq Troop Surge a Success

Interview with Michael Schwartz,
professor of sociology at Stony Brook University,
conducted by Scott Harris

troopsurge

As public opinion in the United States increasingly turns against the Iraq war, the Bush administration and their allies are aggressively working to defend the president's so-called troop surge, which has since January deployed an additional 30,000 U.S. soldiers into the conflict. While many Democrats and a growing number of Republicans have proclaimed their opposition to the current war strategy, the White House is asking Congress to give the surge more time -- and await a progress report due in September. The report and recommendations will be presented to Congress by Army Gen. David Petraeus, senior U.S. commander in Iraq, and U.S. ambassador to Iraq, Ryan Crocker.

But as pressure mounts to change direction in Iraq, a July 30 op-ed piece in the New York Times titled, "A War We Just Might Win," by Michael O'Hanlon and Kenneth Pollack of the Brookings Institution, has attempted to recast the debate in Washington. The editorial discusses progress on the military and political fronts in Iraq, citing the formation of new alliances between some Sunni Arab militias and the U.S. to challenge Al Qaeda forces.

But despite the optimistic report from O'Hanlon and Pollack taken from their recent trip to Iraq, the news from Baghdad is not good. The violence continues and the U.S.-backed government of Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has been threatened by a walkout by five more members of his Cabinet. Almost half of al-Maliki's Cabinet, have already fully or partially withdrawn from the weakened coalition government. Between the Lines' Scott Harris spoke with Michael Schwartz, professor of sociology at Stony Brook University. Schwartz, who recently wrote the article titled, "Benchmarking Iraq for Disaster," takes a critical look at the recent wave of positive spin on President Bush's Iraq troop.

Read Michael Schwartz's articles online at www.tomdispatch.com.

Related links:

Congress Moves to Finance
New Nuclear Power Plants

Interview with the Kevin Kamps,
with the group Beyond Nuclear,
conducted by Melinda Tuhus

nuclear

Last week, the U.S. Congress passed energy legislation that was a very mixed bag for the promotion of safe, renewable energy. The Senate bill mandates an increase in automobile fuel efficiency to 35 mpg, and the House version includes a renewable energy portfolio standard mandating 15 percent of electricity production levels from renewable sources by 2020. These are both major steps toward reducing dependence on foreign oil and for reducing carbon emissions that cause global warming. The differences in the House and Senate bills will have to be worked out in conference committee when Congress returns from its August recess after Labor Day, but there's no guarantee that either of these progressive elements will make it into the final version.

Meanwhile, both versions of the energy bill were passed with language that was slipped into the legislation without debate that could provide up to $50 billion in loan guarantees for the nuclear industry to construct new reactors. According to the Rocky Mountain Institute, each dollar invested in electric efficiency displaces nearly seven times more carbon than a dollar invested in nuclear power. Differences in the House and Senate bills on the nuclear subsidies will also have to be worked out in conference committee, whose members have yet to be appointed.

Between The Lines Melinda Tuhus spoke with Kevin Kamps, an authority on nuclear policy with the group Beyond Nuclear, an organization whose goal is to rid the world of both nuclear power and nuclear weapons. He explains the consequences of the nuclear provisions of the energy bill - both for safe energy and taxpayers if it becomes law.

Beyond Nuclear is affiliated with the Nuclear Policy Research Institute, founded by Dr. Helen Caldicott. Contact the group at (301) 270-2209 or visit their website at www.beyondnuclear.org

Related links:

  • Contact Public Citizen's Energy Program at (202) 588-1000 or visit their website at www.citizen.org

Wall Street Journal Takeover
Expands Murdoch Media Empire

Interview with Steve Rendall,
senior analyst with the media watch group,
Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, conducted by Scott Harris

murdoch

In the latest chapter of giant media company mergers and the consolidation of corporate control over newspapers, radio, TV and publishing, the Bancroft family agreed to sell the Wall Street Journal's parent firm, Dow Jones & Company to Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation for $5 billion on July 31.

The acquisition of the Journal adds a prestigious name to the Australian-born Murdoch's growing media empire. His international holdings include more than 100 newspapers, television networks in Europe and Asia such as Fox, Sky and Star TV - movie companies including Twentieth Century Fox, along with MySpace on the Internet and publisher HarperCollins.

Rupert Murdoch is notorious for using his aggressive business skills to promote his right-wing ideology. During the lead-up to the Iraq war, the media mogul cheer-led the overthrow of Saddam Hussein through his U.S. tabloids and conservative Fox Cable News Channel. With Murdoch's takeover of the Wall Street Journal, known for its conservative editorial page and with a reputation for quality journalism, many observers fear the loss of the paper's independence within the News Corp. empire. Between the Lines' Scott Harris spoke Steve Rendall, senior analyst with the media watch group Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting. While Rendall challenges the conventional wisdom about the Wall Street Journal's contribution to hard-hitting journalism, he fears the further concentration of power and influence in the hands of Rupert Murdoch.

Call FAIR at (212) 633-6700 or visit their website at www.fair.org

Related links:

This week's summary
of under-reported news

Compiled by Bob Nixon

  • French President Nicholas Sarkozy has come under fire for approving a $400 million arms deal with Libya, a week after Libya released Bulgarian health workers convicted of infecting children with the AIDS virus. ("France Confirms EADS Arms Deal with Libya," Agence France Presse, Aug. 4, 2007; "Sarkozy Under Fire Over Alleged Libyan Arms Deal," Agence France Presse, Aug. 2, 2007; "Libyan Market Seen a Bonanza," Associated Press, Aug. 3, 2007)
  • The Cambodian war crimes tribunal has brought charges against Kang Kek Leu, also known as Duch, the former head of the infamous Tuol Sleg prison in Phnom Penh were over 14,000 men, women and children were tortured during the 1970s "killing fields" period,. ("Khmer Rouge Figure is First Charged in Atrocities," New York Times, Aug. 1, 2007; "Key Figures in the Khmer Rouge," BBC, July 31, 2007)
  • FBI and IRS agents recently raided the home of Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) in a wide-ranging corruption probe focusing on his ties to VECO, an oil services company. ("Sen. Stevens' Oil Ties Focus of Probe," USA Today, Aug. 1, 2007; "FBI Probes Stevens' Earmark," Washington Post, Aug. 1, 2007; "Ted Stevens - and Senate GOP - in Trouble," The Nation, July 31, 2007)

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 Aug. 22, 2007

Note to our broadcast affiliates: We offer 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, obtain schedules or send feedback to us at betweenthelines@snet.net.

Credits:
Executive producer: Scott Harris
Segment producers: Scott Harris, Melinda Tuhus
Senior news editor: Bob Nixon
Program narration: Denise Manzari
News reader: Bill Cosentino
Senior web editor/producer: Anna Manzo
Web producer: Jeffrey P. Yates
Newswire editors: Bob Nixon, Anna Manzo, Reginald Johnson (Hank Hoffman is on vacation.)
Photo editor: Scott Harris
Outreach coordinator: Anna Manzo
Distribution: Anna Manzo, Bill Cosentino & Jeffrey P. Yates
Theme music: Written by Richard Hill and Jody Gray, and performed by Mikata


Between The Lines
Airs on WPKN 89.5 FM ET
Tuesdays, 5:30 p.m. - 6 p.m.
Wednesdays, 8 a.m. - 8:30 a.m.
(7:30 a.m. - 8 a.m. during April, October fundraising)
Saturdays, 2 p.m. - 2:30 p.m.


Listen to Between The Lines live at these times by clicking here!
Between The Lines Broadcast Availability
- Pacifica Radio Network
Ku Satellite feed (every Friday at 1 p.m. Eastern Time on the Satellite's Left Channel A)
- MP3 download by FTP access
or CD subscription
Contact us for distribution schedule and/or FTP logon access below:

BETWEEN THE LINES
c/o WPKN Radio 89.5 FM
244 University Avenue
Bridgeport, CT 06604

Telephone:
(203) 268-8446
or
(203) 331-9756

E-Mail: betweenthelines@snet.net

Distributed by Squeaky Wheel Productions, Inc.
(c)2007 Squeaky Wheel Productions, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

... MORE ...

How You Can Support Between The Lines
Click here to learn how to support our efforts!

Last Week's Program

Between The Lines Week Ending 8/10/07

U.S. Politics

"Democratic Iraq Betrayal: Treachery On The Campaign Trail,"by Paul Street, ZNet, Aug. 15, 2007

"RNC Now Seeks Shelter Of Executive Privilege,"by Jason Leopold, Truthout, Aug. 14, 2007

"Pelosi Needs To Pust Impeachment On The Table,"by Bruce Fein, San Francisco Chronicle, Aug. 14, 2007

"Ready, Ames, Fire: Straw Poll Hits, Misses,"by John Nichols, The Nation, Aug. 13, 2007

"Democrats Say Leaving Iraq Could Take Years,"The New York Times, Aug. 12, 2007

"A Personal Vision For Cindy Sheehan's Campaign,"by Daniel Ellsberg, ZNet, Aug. 11, 2007

"How The Democrats Blew It In Only Eight Months,"by Alexander Cockburn, The Nation, Aug. 10, 2007

More newswire ...

Bush Regime

"Bush's Brain Steps Down: Facing Subpoenas, Karl Rove Resigns," by Amy Goodman, Democracy Now!, Aug. 15, 2007

"What Is Karl Rove Hiding?," by Marcy Wheeler, Guardian/UK, Aug. 14, 2007

"Gonzales Could Get Say In States' Executions," Los Angeles Times, Aug. 14, 2007

"Rove's Off White House Payroll: Will That Free Him To Play Even Dirtier Tricks?," by Rick Perlstein, TomPaine.com, Aug. 13, 2007

More newswire ...

American Empire/War Profiteering

"The Mercenary Revolution: Flush With Profits From The Iraq War, Military Contractors See A World Of Business Opportunities," by Jeremy Scahill, The Indypendent, Aug. 13, 2007

"Mechanistic Destruction: American Foreign Policy At Point Zero," by Gabriel Kolko, Antiwar.com, Aug. 11, 2007

"Paraguay: A Laboratory For Latin America's New Militarism," by Ben Dangl, Guerilla News Network, Aug. 3, 2007

More newswire ...

"Postwar" Occupation of Iraq, Afghanistan

"Escalation By The Numbers,"by Tom Engelhardt, TomDispatc.com, Aug. 13, 2007

"The Truth Behind The Pollack-O'Hanlon Trip To Iraq,"by Glenn Greenwald, Salon, 2007

"No Light, Just Tunnel: The Bipartisan Guarantee Of Continuing War In Iraq,"by Chris Floyd, Empire Burlesque, Aug. 12, 2007

"Our War Crimes,"by Steven Greenhut, Orange County Register, Aug. 12, 2007

More newswire ...

Civil Liberties/ Human Rights

"I Know What You Did Last Summer: Destroyed The Fourth Amendment," by Jonathan Alter, Newsweek, Aug. 20, 2007

"NSA Wiretapping Trial Begins," Christian Science Monitor, Aug. 14, 2007

"You Have No Rights: Interview With Matthew Rothschild," TruthDig, Aug. 14, 2007

"'Impeach Bush' Sign= Littering?," by Matthew Rothschild, The Progressive, Aug. 14, 2007

"Cowardly Democrats Give In To President On NSA Wiretapping," by Bill Press, Baltimore Sun, Aug. 13, 2007

"The FBI In Peace And War: Still The Same," by Saul Landau, ZNet, Aug. 11, 2007

"FISA Revised: A Blank Check For Domestic Spying," by Marjorie Cohn, Common Dreams, Aug. 10, 2007

"How Bush Gained The Power To Spy On You Without Security Justifications," by Aziz Huq, The Nation, Aug. 10, 2007

"Breaking Bush's Resistance: Pending Court Case Could Expose Administration's Torture Regime," by James Bovard, The American Conservative, July 30, 2007

More newswire ...

Media Issues

"Hollywood Tears Up Script To Make Antiwar Films While Conflicts Rage," Guardian/UK, Aug. 14, 2007

More newswire ...

Activism

"Speaking Different Languages: How The Peace Movement Works With The Military Community," by Zoltan Grossman, ZNet, Aug. 14, 2007

"U.N. Web Site Hacked With Antiwar Protest," The Associated Press, Aug. 14, 2007

"Hungry For End To War, Code Pink Activists Set Up Camp," San Francisco Chronicle, Aug. 13, 2007

"We Should All Be At Heathrow Protesting," by Johann Hari, Independent/UK, Aug. 13, 2007

"Heathrow Eco-Protesters Steal A March On Police," Guardian/UK, Aug. 13, 2007

"From Sniper To War Resister: My Journey," by Army National Guard Spc. Eleonai "Eli" Israel, Common Dreams, Aug. 12, 2007

More newswire ...

Home | Archives | About Between The Lines | Search BTL Archives
Broadcast Schedule | Contact us

[Return to top of this page]