Democracy Now! October 2, 2002

Program Title:
Democracy Now! October 2, 2002
Series Title:
PRA Archive #: 
PZ0517.02
Description: 

Bush's single-bullet theory assassinate Saddam Hussein: international human rights attorneys Michael Ratner and Reed Brody respond to Bush s press secretary Ari Fleischer s call to kill; Police spying: New York police seeks court approval to monitor political activists; Denver opens hundreds of spy files collected from illegal monitoring of citizens; Police crack down on activists across the country from Maine to California to Washington

9:00-9:01 BILLBOARD 9:01-9:06 HEADLINES 9:06-9:07 ONE-MINUTE MUSIC BREAK 9:07-9:15: The White House yesterday endorsed the assassination of Saddam Hussein as a means of achieving its aim of regime change in Iraq. Ari Fleischer, the White House press secretary, said that a "one-way ticket" or a "single bullet" were ways of dealing with the Iraqi leader. Fleischer emphasized that the Bush administration had no plans to rescind the executive order, which prohibits the assassination of heads of state. Fleischer called reporters after the briefing to tone down the impact of his words. "I was making a rhetorical point about the cost of the bullet," he said. "The point I'm making is not an administration policy. If the Iraqi people took events into their own hands, the world would not shed a tear. I'm not stating administration policy, I'm stating the obvious." In August, the New York Times reported that the U.S. government is considering plans to send elite military units on missions to assassinate alleged terrorists around the world, without necessarily informing the governments involved. This comes despite a long-standing president order forbidding US personnel from carrying out assassinations abroad. GUEST: MICHAEL RATNER, international human rights lawyer and the president of the Center for Constitutional Rights GUEST: REED BRODY, advocacy director for Human Rights Watch TAPE: ARI FLEISCHER, Bush spokesperson Links: Center for Constitutional Rights: http://www.ccr-ny.org/ Human Rights Watch: http://www.hrw.org Transcript of Ari Fleischer s Oct. 1 comments: http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2002/10/20021001-4.html 9:20-9:35: The New York Police Department recently asked a Federal District judge in to lift restrictions that curtail police monitoring of political activity. The request comes a month after the city of Denver publicly released its spy files on hundreds of activists who had been illegally monitored. In New York the restrictions known as the Handschu agreement limited the ability of the police to investigate political activities by individuals or groups unless investigators have specific information that a crime will be committed or is being planned. We begin with a column by Newsday reporter Leonard Levitt that was published on Monday: Police Commissioner Ray Kelly could not cite one instance, real or hypothetical, in which the Handschu guidelines hindered police in fighting terrorism, the only thing to be said with certainty is that his attempt to abolish them is the Police Department's first power grab since the World Trade Center attack. It is a historical decision, and one consistent with the actions of law enforcement agencies across the nation in abrogating the civil rights of citizens, from secret tribunals to people held without criminal charges to lack of public access to court proceedings. Handschu's little-known guidelines stem from a 1971 suit filed by 16 plaintiffs, including one Barbara Handschu, who contended that the department violated their civil rights by unlawful surveillance. The guidelines include such safeguards for citizens as establishing suspicion of criminal activity before the department can begin investigating a person's or group's political activity. The consent decree that followed 14 years later in 1985 appeared to recognize a history of law enforcement abuses. Those abuses included the NYPD's notorious Red Squad during the 1950s and its Bureau of Strategic Services [BOSS] of the 1960s, as well as the FBI's Cointel-Pro, whose "black bag jobs" aimed at student and black radicals in the 1970s were directed by J. Wallace LaPrade in New York. The two-year conspiracy trial of Black Panthers in 1971 has faded with time. The Black Panther Party was infiltrated by police under the direction of Frank Hogan, who was the Manhattan prosecutor. The jury acquitted all of them within three hours. STUDIO GUEST: NORMAN SIEGEL, former executive director of the NYCLU PHONE GUEST: OMOWALE CLAY, former member of New York Eight which were monitored for years by the New York City police. PHONE GUEST: MARK SILVERSTEIN, legal director of the ACLU of Colorado Links: ACLU of Colorado: http://www.aclu-co.org 9:20-9:21 ONE-MINUTE MUSIC BREAK 9:25-9:35 POLICE SPYING CONT D 9:35-9:58: As the Bush administration continues to beat the drums for war, tens of thousands across the country have taken to the streets to call for peace and to question governmental policies. And from Washington D.C. to Portland Oregon to Portland Maine, police have cracked down on protesters. On Friday, D.C. police arrested 650 at a peaceful protest against the World Bank and International Monetary Fund. A night earlier police arrested 14 demonstrators at a protest in Portland, Maine. In both cases protests charge the police used excessive force and made illegal pre-emptive arrests. In California, Gov. Davis recently vetoed a bill that would have protected the basic of rights of protesters. This bill would have limited penalties for acts of peaceful civil disobedience to a maximum $100 fine and/or 6 days in jail, and provide background against which lawyers could further defend participants in peaceful protests. PHONE GUEST: MARK GOLDSTONE, criminal defense and constitutional lawyer with National Lawyers Guild in Washington, D.C. He has represented thousands of political protesters representing a myriad of progressive issues since 1985. He chairs the Demonstration Support Committee of the DC Chapter of the National Lawyer's Guild PHONE GUEST: JOHN PASSACANTANDO, executive director of Greenpeace who was arrested on his work LOWER THIRD: Arrested at D.C. protests PHONE GUEST: JESSE LEAH VEAR, Maine activist who witnessed police brutality at anti-war rally in Portland, Maine LOWER THIRD: witnessed police brutality PHONE GUEST: LANCE WEBSTER, Executive Communications Coach, Writer, Motivational Speaker, and Minister Links: Just Dissent: http://www.justdissent.org/ Maine Independent Media Center: http://maine.indymedia.org/ Greenpeace: http://www.greenpeaceusa.org/

Date Recorded on: 
October 2, 2002
Date Broadcast on: 
October 2, 2002
Item duration: 
59 min.
Keywords: 
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Distributor: 
WBAI; Amy Goodman, host., October 2, 2002
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