Democracy Now! April 25, 2002

01-9:06 Headlines: 9:07-9:20 WHAT REALLY HAPPENED IN JENIN? THE INDEPENDENT NEWSPAPER OF BRITAIN HAS PUBLISHED THE FIRST COMPREHENSIVE INVESTIGATION. The first comprehensive investigation into the Israeli attack on Jenin was conducted by London Independent reporters Justin Huggler and Phil Reeves, along with Human Rights Watch senior researcher Peter Bouckaert. The article in todays Independent begins: The thought was as unshakable as the stench wafting from the ruins. Was this really about counterterrorism? Was it revenge? Or was it an episode the nastiest so far in a long war by Ariel Sharon, the staunch opponent of the Oslo accords, to establish Israel's presence in the West Bank as permanent, and force the Palestinians into final submission? A neighbourhood had been reduced to a moonscape, pulverised under the tracks of bulldozers and tanks. A maze of cinder-block houses, home to about 800 Palestinian families, had disappeared. What was left the piles of broken concrete and scattered belongings reeked. The rubble in Jenin reeked, literally, of rotting human corpses, buried underneath. But it also gave off the whiff of wrongdoing, of an army and a government that had lost its bearings. "This is horrifying beyond belief," said the United Nations' Middle East envoy, Terje Roed-Larsen, as he gazed at the scene. He called it a "blot that will forever live on the history of the state of Israel" a remark for which he was to be vilified by Israelis. Even the painstakingly careful United States envoy, William Burns, was unusually outspoken as he trudged across the ruins. "It's obvious that what happened in Jenin refugee camp has caused enormous suffering for thousands of innocent Palestinian civilians," he said. The Israeli army insists that its devastating invasion of the refugee camp in Jenin earlier this month was intended to root out the infrastructure of the Palestinian militias, particularly the authors of an increasingly vicious series of suicide attacks on Israelis. It now says the dead were mostly fighters. And, as always although its daily behaviour in the occupied territories contradicts this claim it insists that it did everything possible to protect civilians. But The Independent has unearthed a different story. We have found that, while the Israeli operation clearly dealt a devastating blow to the militant organisations in the short term, at least nearly half of the Palestinian dead who have been identified so far were civilians, including women, children and the elderly. Guest: Justin Huggler, reporter with the Independent of London, author of a seven page report on war crimes in Jenin Guest: Peter Bouckaert, senior researcher for Human Rights Watch Tape: Colin Powell answering a question about Jenin at a press conference held yesterday, 04/24 9:20-9:21 One Minute Music Break 9:21-9:30 ISRAELI SOLDIERS KILL THREE YOUNG PALESTINIAN TEENAGERS TRYING TO INFILTRATE THE JEWISH SETTLEMENT OF NETZARIM: A FIRST HAND ACCOUNT FROM REPORTER ROBERT FISK Israeli soldiers shot and killed three young Palestinian teenagers trying to infiltrate the Jewish settlement of Netzarim on Tuesday.The headline on the front page of the New York Times reads, Passions Inflamed, Gaza Teenagers Die in Suicidal Attacks The article claims the three boys were armed with knives and homemade bombs. But London Independent reporter Robert Fisk has spent the morning with the fathers of the three boys and has another story. Guest: Robert Fisk, reporter for the London Independent, in the Gaza Strip 9:40-9:41 One Minute Music Break 9:35-9:58 AT AN UNPRECEDENTED VATICAN SUMMIT, US CARDINALS BACK AWAY FROM AN ANTICIPATED ZERO-TOLERANCE POLICY IN DEALING WITH SEXUALLY ABUSIVE PRIESTS US cardinals yesterday said they would recommend a process to defrock any priest who has become "notorious and is guilty of the serial, predatory sexual abuse of minors", but leave the disciplining of first time offender priests to local bishops. The cardinals did not focus on what to do about bishops who have protected sexually abusive priests. They also dropped from the agenda the case of Boston Archbishop Cardinal Bernard Law, who faces a tide of public indignation and demands for his resignation because of his failure to protect dozens of children from known pedophiles. The cardinals final document is significantly watered down from the strong language of Pope John Paul II earlier this week. On Tuesday the Pope said there is "no place" for child molesters in the priesthood. Chicago Cardinal Francis George, one of the U.S. delegates at the Vatican summit, outraged victims of priest abuse with his comments during a Vatican press conference yesterday, when he drew a distinction between those who make advances toward boys as opposed to girls. "There is a difference between a moral monster like Geoghan," he said, referring to John Geoghan, a former Boston priest accused of abusing more than 200 boys over 30 years, "and an individual who perhaps under the influence of alcohol" engages in inappropriate behavior with "a 16- or 17-year-old young woman who returns his affections." Guest: Frederick Berlin, Associate Professor of Psychiatry, Johns Hopkins Medical School, founder of the Johns Hopkins Sexual Disorders Clinic and consultant on the National Conference of Catholic Bishops' ad hoc committee on sexual abuse Guest: A.W. Richard Sipe, author of Sex, Priests, and Power: Anatomy of a Crisis Guest: Barbara Blaine, founder of SNAP, Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, a self-help organization Contact: www.survivorsnetwork.org MUSIC: 6: NO BREAK 20: NO ONE KNOWS IM GONE Tom Waits Alice (Anti CD) 40: WHITE MEN IN BLACK DRESSES Sandy Rapp We The People 1(813)522-3947 End: STILL WOULD STAND ALL TIME Prince Graffiti Bridge (Paisley Park/Warner Bros.) 9:58-9:59 Outro and Credits