Democracy Now! August 7, 2002

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Program Title:
Democracy Now! August 7, 2002
Series Title:
PRA Archive #: 
PZ0450.223
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POSTAL WORKERS SAY NO TO OPERATION TIPS/ THE HOLLYWOOD HACKING BILL

US Postal Workers Say No To Operation TIPS: The Justice Department will recruit 1 million Americans in 10 pilot cities to create a citizen spy network. The Hollywood Hacking Bill: A proposal in Congress to give corporations the right to hack into personal computers. Are Saudis Our New Enemies?: New satellite images show a US military base in Qatar, as Saudi Arabia is accused of being an enemy of the US. All that and more coming up. 9:01-9:06 Headlines: ISRAELI POLICE ATTACK A DEMONSTRATION OUTSIDE OCCUPIED NABLUS AND ARREST OVER A DOZEN PALESTINIANS AND INTERNATIONAL ACTIVISTS Earlier today hundreds of Palestinians were joined by international activists for a demonstration in the village of Howarra just outside Nablus. Over a dozen Palestinians and international activists were arrested, including International Solidarity Movement co-founder Adam Shapiro. Guest: Wajeeh Odeh, mayor of Howarra, town outside Nablus 9:07-9:20 US POSTAL WORKERS SAY NO TO OPERATION TIPS This month the Justice department plans to recruit 1 million Americans in 10 pilot cities to act as citizen spies. A couple of weeks ago the Justice Department announced its new plan for the so-called war on terror : Operation TIPS , the Terrorism Information and Prevention System. It aims to recruit millions of workers with access to private homes such as FedEx delivery people, mail carriers, and gas meter readers as well as truck drivers, train conductors and ship captains to report what they think is suspicious activity. Teamsters president James Hoffa announced publicly that the Teamsters supported the plan, and that the 500,000 Teamster truck drivers would be the eyes and ears of the Homeland Security office. But the US Postal service immediately issued a statement saying its 300,000-some postal workers had not signed on. Yesterday the online magazine salon.com discovered that the department of justice is forwarding incoming Operation TIPS calls to the Fox-owned Americas Most Wanted television series. Guest: William Smith, president of the New York Metro Postal Workers Union IN STUDIO 9:21-9:40 THE HOLLYWOOD HACKING BILL : A PROPOSAL IN CONGRESS GIVES CORPORATIONS THE RIGHT TO HACK INTO PERSONAL COMPUTER NETWORKS TO PROTECT COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL Corporations may soon be given the right to hack into personal computer networks to protect copyrighted material. The major record and film companies hope to use this legislation to end online piracy. But critics fear the House bill would severely compromise personal privacy. The bill expands police powers to eavesdrop over the Internet or telephone without a court order. But not all hacking is equal before the eyes of the government. In early July, the House voted to increase the maximum sentence for other forms of hacking to life in prison. Guest: Declan McCullagh, chief political correspondent for CNET's News.com. For the last four years, he has been the Washington bureau chief for Wired News. He was the first online reporter to join the National Press Club and he participated in the first White House dot com press pool. McCullagh writes and speaks frequently about technology, law, and politics. Contact: www.mccullagh.org Links: www.2600.com/Guest: Siva Vaidhyanathan, media studies scholar and cultural historian. He is the author of Copyrights and Copywrongs: The Rise of Intellectual Property and How it Threatens Creativity. Guest: Alec French, counsel to Congressman Howard Berman (D-CA), the ranking member on the House Judiciary Subcommittee. Representative Berman proposed the Peer to Peer Piracy Prevention Act in Congress Contact: www.house.gov/berman 9:41-9:50 SATELLITE IMAGES REVEAL US MILITARY BASE IN QATAR In just a moment we are going to be talking about the report that came out yesterday in the Washington Post on A briefing last month for a top Pentagon advisory panel that depicted Saudi Arabia as an enemy to the United States and a backer of terrorism. In recent months, the Saudis have said they would not provide the US with the kind of support they did in the Gulf War, if the Bush administration decides to launch a massive attack on Iraq. Saudi Arabia shares a large border with Iraq and was the main launching ground for the US forces during the war. The US has now begun shifting its operations to the Gulf state of Qatar. Satellite photos published yesterday in the NY Post show just how far U.S. preparations for war with Iraq have advanced. The images were taken by the commercial satellite company Digital Globe. Guest: Tim Brown, Senior Analyst at Globalsecurity.org, a defense think tank based in Alexandria, Virginia. He is an expert on satellite analysis. 9:50-9:58 BRIEFING DEPICTED SAUDIS AS ENEMIES From Qatar, we now move to Saudi Arabia. Last night and this morning, the cable news networks were abuzz with discussions of a report in yesterday s Washington Post. It detailed a briefing given last month to a top Pentagon advisory board describing Saudi Arabia as an enemy of the United States. It recommended that U.S. officials give Saudi Arabia an ultimatum to stop backing terrorism or face seizure of its oil fields and its financial assets invested in the United States. The briefing runs counter to the present stance of the U.S. government that Saudi Arabia is a major ally in the region. Yet it also represents a point of view that has growing currency within the Bush administration -- especially on the staff of Vice President Cheney and in the Pentagon's civilian leadership -- and among neo-conservative writers and thinkers closely allied with administration policymakers. The leaking of the details of the briefing sparked these remarks by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. MD Tape: Donald Rumsfeld at press briefing Guest: Lamis Andoni, independent journalist who writes frequently for al-Hayyat and Aharam Weekly. Next year she will be teaching a course on the so called War on Terrorism at UC Berkeley. She covered the Gulf War from Baghdad for the Christian Science Monitor and the Financial Times. 9:58-9:59 Outro and Credits

Date Recorded on: 
August 7, 2002
Date Broadcast on: 
August 7, 2002
Item duration: 
59 min.
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Distributor: 
WPFW; Amy Goodman, host. August 7, 2002
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