Democracy Now! January 22, 2002

Program Title:
Democracy Now! January 22, 2002
Series Title:
PRA Archive #: 
PZ0450.082
Description: 

ISRAEL SILENCES THE VOICE OF PALESTINE: A CONVERSATION WITH THE DIRECTOR OF A DOCUMENTARY ABOUT THE RECENTLY BOMBED RADIO STATION ; CONVERSATION WITH THE DIRECTOR OF A DOCUMENTARY ABOUT THE RECENTLY BOMBED RADIO STATION ; SCHOOLGIRLS AND A CATHOLIC POSTAL WORKER IS KILLED, CATHOLIC AND PROTESTANT TRADE UNIONS CALL FOR AN END TO SECTARIAN VIOLENCE ; U.S. TROOPS MEET RESISTANCE IN SAUDI ARABIA, THE U.S. SETS UP A SECRET NETWORK OF MILITARY BASES IN CENTRAL ASIA . Host: Amy Goodman.

ISRAEL SILENCES THE VOICE OF PALESTINE: A CONVERSATION WITH THE DIRECTOR OF A DOCUMENTARY ABOUT THE RECENTLY BOMBED RADIO STATION.Israeli commandos killed four suspected Hamas militants during a raid early this morning on an alleged hideout in the West Bank town of Nablus. Earlier this morning, Israel moved to re-occupy part of the West Bank, just hours after it seized control of the nearby city of Tulkarem. The Israeli army imposed a 24-hour curfew and sent troops door to door. While Israeli forces have previously occupied positions in Palestinian-controlled territory, this is the first time in 16 months of conflict that they have taken over an entire city. The raids in Tulkarem and Nablus follow four days of strikes, arrests, and house demolitions by the Israeli army. On Saturday, Israeli troops entered the offices of the Voice of Palestine radio to lay explosive charges and clear away its occupants. They blew up the five-story building. Israel has said it is retaliating for a Palestinian attack that killed six people in northern Israel last Thursday, when a lone Palestinian gunman walked into a crowded bat mitzvah celebration and opened fire. Yesterday we grabbed a rare moment with award-winning filmmaker, Rashid Masharawi, as he tried to run to collect his video tapes in between bombings. He will then try to make his way out of the West Bank town of Ramallah and into Jordan to begin a tour of his latest documentary, "Live from Palestine." The film chronicles the world inside and outside the Voice of Palestine, the radio station that broadcasts the official positions of the Palestinian Authority. GUEST: RASHID MASHARAWI, Director, Live from Palestine, a documentary on the Voice of Palestine radio station 9:21-9:40 AS PROTESTANTS HARASS CATHOLIC SCHOOLGIRLS AND A CATHOLIC POSTAL WORKER IS KILLED, CATHOLIC AND PROTESTANT TRADE UNIONS CALL FOR AN END TO SECTARIAN VIOLENCE Tensions are high in Catholic north Belfast again, following the murder of a 20-year-old Catholic postal worker. Daniel McColgan was shot dead as he reported for work at a postal depot in a sprawling loyalist housing estate on the fringes of north Belfast. His murder was almost immediately claimed by the loyalist paramilitary force the Ulster Defense Association. Since the murder postal workers and teachers in Catholic schools across Northern Ireland have received death threats. Yesterday morning, a Protestant boys' school was evacuated after a bomb threat. Last week, riots flared in Catholic and Protestant enclaves across Northern Irish towns. The renewed violence comes after months of loyalist protests outside the catholic Holy Cross girls' elementary near Belfast. Several months aog Protestants began heckling girls and throwing scalding tea and urine-filled balloons at them. After a pipe bomb exploded at the school, riots broke out at night.The murder of Daniel McColgan was a major blow to the northern Irish peace process, which many believed had entered a new era after the IRA agreed to begin disarmament shortly after the attacks of September 11th. This happens in the framework of a momentous and controversial move. Sinn Fein, the Northern Irish nationalist political party, moved some of their offices to the British House of Parliament at Westminster. Sinn Feins four members of parliament refused to take their seats in what they call a "foreign parliament" and will not make the oath of allegiance to the Queen usually required to sit in the Commons. But after a controversial parliament vote, Sinn Fein will be able to use the palace's facilities and receive office allowances. Today we are joined from Belfast by Anne Tanney, the principal of the Holy Cross school. Angie Boyle is also with us, whose ten year old daughter Helen is a student at Holy Cross. Last week Boyle decided to withdraw her daughter from the school. We are also joined by two schoolteachers, who helped to organize a major trade union rally on Friday in protest of recent outbreaks of sectarian violence. The Irish Congress of Trade Unions joined with teachers and hospital unions to call for a half-day work stoppage on Friday, to call for an end to the riots. Close to 50,000 people came out to the demonstration in the pouring rain on Friday, in central Belfast and in towns across northern Ireland. GUEST: ANNE TANNEY, principal of Catholic Holy Cross girls elementary school, Belfast GUEST: ANGIE BOYLE, mother of student at Holy Cross school, who has withdrawn her daughter from the school GUEST: JOHN PRICE, schoolteacher at a Catholic school in Belfast and a member of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions GUEST: MARK HEWITT, schoolteacher at a Protestant school in Belfast 9:40-9:41 ONE-MINUTE MUSIC BREAK 9:41-9:58 AS U.S. TROOPS MEET RESISTANCE IN SAUDI ARABIA, THE U.S. SETS UP A SECRET NETWORK OF MILITARY BASES IN CENTRAL ASIA After more than ten years of US military presence in Saudi Arabia, Saudi Arabia's rulers may soon ask the US to withdraw. President George Bush, Secretary of State Colin Powell, and Secretary of War Donald Rumsfeld all deny the reports that Saudi Arabia will ask the US to pack up their troops. But they come at a time when U.S.-Saudi relations are at a precarious low. The United States has maintained a presence in Saudi Arabia ever since the Gulf War, when both countries feared an Iraqi invasion of the oil-rich kingdom. When U.S. troops remained after the war Saudi resentment rose, culminating in the bombing of the Khobar Towers in 1996. Nineteen American soldiers died in the attack; hundreds more were wounded. But the US still did not leave the country. Now, as U.S. troops face eviction from Saudi Arabia, the military has been creating a ring of new and expanded military bases that encircle Afghanistan throughout neighboring central Asia. Over the past four months, the United States has moved into nine countries in the region and built up to thirteen new bases, with no plans to dismantle them after the bombing ends in Afghanistan. I spoke with Bill Arkin shortly after he broke this story in early January. GUEST: BILL ARKIN, correspondent for the LA Times and a weekly columnist for the Washington Post. He served as the director of Greenpeace International's war response team during the Gulf War and served in the US army from 1974 to 1978. GUEST: PRATAP CHATTERJEE, independent journalist, reporting from Uzbekistan 9:58-9:59 OUTRO AND CREDITS

Date Recorded on: 
January 22, 2002
Date Broadcast on: 
January 22, 2002
Item duration: 
59 min.
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Distributor: 
WPFW; Amy Goodman, host. January 22, 2002
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