Democracy Now! June 9, 2003

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Program Title:
Democracy Now! June 9, 2003
Series Title:
PRA Archive #: 
PZ0517.180a
Description: 

13,000 Arabs & Muslims in U.S. Face Deportation & John Ashcroft Attempts to Expand Patriot Act: Constitutional law expert David Cole examines the links between the Palmer Raids of the 1920s and the Justice Department post-9/11; Rebels call for Liberian President Charles Taylor to step down as attack on the capital intensifies: As tens of thousands flee the Liberian capital of Monrovia we talk with an opposition leader, Tarty The, Washington Post reporter Douglas Farah and Reed Brody of Human Rights Watch

8:00-8:01 Billboard 8:01-8:06 Headlines 8:06-8:07 One Minute Music Break 8:07-8:30: More than 13,000 Arab and Muslim men are facing deportation in what could result in the largest wave of deportations since the Sept. 11 attacks, this according to a report in the New York Times. Those facing deportation are among the 82,000 men from Arab and Muslim countries who voluntarily registered with immigration officials over the six months. The Pakistani community has been particularly hard hit. Bobby Khan of the Coney Island Avenue Project told the New York Times that between 40 to 50 percent of the 120,000 Pakistanis who lived in the area before Sept. 11 have since been detained, deported or have left the area. Officials have acknowledged that almost all of the immigrants who face deportation have no ties to terrorism. So far the government has claimed only 11 of those who registered had links to terror groups. News of the mass deportations comes just a week after the release of a Justice Department report that concluded authorities violated the civil rights of hundreds of immigrants detained since Sept. 11. The review by the Office of the Inspector General found FBI officials made little attempt to distinguish between immigrants with possible ties to terrorism, and those who simply had the misfortune to be swept up in the investigation. Without bail, detainees remained in jail for an average of nearly three months. They had to wait for weeks until they were allowed to make phone calls and find lawyers. Some were kept for months in cells illuminated 24 hours a day and were escorted in handcuffs, leg irons and waist chains. At the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, where over 80 people were held, the report found a pattern of physical and verbal abuse. While the report has been viewed as very critical, the situation may be worse. The study only looks at immigrants picked up between September 2001 and August 2002. Newsday is reporting that a group of hundreds of detainees in Brooklyn and New Jersey suing the government plan to amend their suit based on the new report. Attorneys for the detainees wrote the oversight report "provides a wealth of previously unknown detail that substantiates the plaintiffs' allegations they were wrongfully designated as individuals 'of interest' to the government's investigation of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and subjected to an array of unconstitutional policies. Despite the critical report, Attorney General John Ashcroft is urging Congress to give the Justice Department more power. Late last week he asked Congress to expand the USA Patriot Act to permit the government to hold more suspects indefinitely, and to extend the death penalty to more people accused of terrorist crimes. * David Cole, professor at Georgetown University Law Center. He is the author of the forthcoming book Enemy Aliens: Double Standards and Constitutional Freedoms in the War on Terrorism. An article of his titled We ve Aimed, Detained and Missed Before that appeared in yesterday s Washington Post. 8:20-8:21 One Minute Music Break 8:30-8:58: Tens of thousands of people have fled the Liberian capital of Monrovia as rebels from the Liberian United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD) fight their way into the city. Military helicopters began evacuating Americans and Europeans from Liberia's besieged capital at dawn today. They were evacuated out of embassy compounds for a French ship waiting in the Atlantic. The EU mission in Liberia told AP that a total of 91 international residents of Liberia were to be evacuated from the EU compound. They included foreign staff of the International Red Cross Committee and U.N. agencies. Refugees have taken shelter in the football stadium and the crackle of gunfire can be heard in the distance. The rebels now claim control of the entire country except for Monrovia. They have delivered a 72-hour ultimatum to the country s President, Charles Taylor, to step down. Hundreds of thousands have fled their homes since LURD rebels began their campaign to oust him in 1999. Rebels gained momentum Wednesday when a U.N. backed War Crimes court indicted Taylor on charges of crimes against humanity for his role in the civil war in Sierra Leone. The announcement of the indictment came as Taylor arrived in Ghana for peace talks aimed at ending the civil war. No attempt was made to arrest him, and Taylor immediately flew back to Monrovia to face the growing threat to his regime. Taylor launched his own rebellion in 1989 in Liberia, a country founded by freed American slaves in the 19th Century. Since then, Liberia has suffered almost uninterrupted civil wars that have left an estimated 200,000 dead. In 1991, Sierra Leone s civil war erupted after Taylor helped organize the Revolutionary United Front (RUF), a rebel group that sought to topple the government and control the country s diamond mines. During the brutal civil war that followed, the RUF became infamous for their use of child soldiers, who were often drugged, and for amputating the arms and legs of their enemies. Taylor has fought a series of wars and skirmishes with neighboring countries all the while facing resistence at home. David Crane, the American who is the Chief Prosecutor for the special court for Sierra Leone, said his team of investigators were charged with finding out where responsibility lay for the atrocities committed in Sierra Leone and to QUOTE follow the evidence wherever it leads. It leads unequivocably to Taylor. * Reed Brody, Human Rights Watch Link: http://www.hrw.org/* Tarty Teh, Chief Political Representative of Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD) in the United States. LURD rebels are leading the battle to unseat Pres. Charles Taylor. * Douglas Farah, former Washington Post bureau chief for West Africa, Taylor's government targeted him for assassination after he published links between Taylor and Al Qaeda. 8:40-8:41 One Minute Music Break 8:41-8:58 Liberia cont d 8:58-8:59 Outro and Credits Democracy Now! is produced by Kris Abrams, Mike Burke, Angie Karran, Sharif Abdul Kouddous, Ana Nogueira, Elizabeth Press with help from Noah Reibel and Vilka Tzouras. Mike Di Filippo is our music maestro and engineer. Thanks also to Uri Galed, Angela Alston, Emily Kunstler, Orlando Richards, Simba Rousseau, Rafael delaUz, Gabriel Weiss, Johnny Sender, Rich Kim, Karen Ranucci, Fatima Mojadiddy, Denis Moynihan and Jenny Filipazzo.

Date Recorded on: 
June 9, 2003
Date Broadcast on: 
June 9, 2003
Item duration: 
59 min.
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Distributor: 
WBAI; Amy Goodman, host., June 9, 2003
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