Democracy Now! December 5, 2002

9:00-9:01 Billboard: 9:01-9:05 Headlines 9:05-9:06 One Minute Music Break 9:06-9:20: The war hawks in Washington are ratcheting up their campaign to build public support for its war on Iraq. At a time when polls suggest a decline in public enthusiasm for a war on Iraq, a new group has formed. It s called the Committee for the Liberation of Iraq. And its goal is to replace the government of Iraq with one more in keeping with US geopolitical interests by any means necessary. The group has close ties to vice president Dick Cheney, war secretary Donald Rumsfeld and the next Senate Majority Leader, Trent Lott. It s members include former secretary of state George Schultz, Senator John McCain, and former senator Bob Kerrey. Jim Lobe writes in this month s Foreign Policy in Focus Report that the Committee s president is Randy Scheunemann, Lott's former chief national-security adviser who last year worked in Rumsfeld's office as a consultant on Iraq policy. The chairman of the new Committee, Bruce Jackson, is a former vice president of Lockheed Martin who chaired the Republican Party Platform's subcommittee for National Security and Foreign Policy when Bush ran for president in 2000. Jackson also served as chairman of the U.S. Committee to Expand NATO, which spearheaded a so-called "citizen's" campaign to persuade Congress to ratify NATO's eastward expansion in 1998. Jackson resigned from Lockheed earlier this year to, in his words, "pursue democracy building projects full-time." Lobe continues, the new Committee on Iraq appears to be a spin-off from the Project for a New American Century, a front group consisting mainly of neoconservative Jews and heavy-hitters from the Christian Right whose public recommendations on fighting President George W. Bush's "war against terrorism" and alignment with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in the second intifada have anticipated to a remarkable degree the administration's policy course. Committee member and former senator Bob Kerrey has publicly called for regime change in Iraq. But he wears more than one hat. Kerrey is also the president of New School University in New York. Students at the New School are furious that their president is using his position as university president to publicly support a war they feel misrepresents the values and traditions of their school. The New School University, formerly known as the New School for Social Research, was founded on the pacifist principles of Charles Beard and James Harvey Robinson. They left Columbia University when Columbia fired two other professors because they opposed the entry of the U.S. into WWI. Just two weeks ago, the students called for a meeting with their university president. When Kerrey did not respond, the students stormed into his office and demanded that a public forum be held. Students claimed that Kerrey lost his temper and cursed at them, but finally agreed to the forum. The public forum at the New School University was held yesterday. Students representatives Colin Walsh and Ann Kirkham debated Bob Kerrey and called for his resignation. Kerrey was also joined by Mustapha Tlili of the World Policy Institute who spoke in his defence. At the forum, each panel member was allowed eight minutes to make their speech. University president and former senator Bob Kerrey spoke first: Tape: public forum at New School University, 12/04/02, with New School University President and former Nebraska Senator Bob Kerrey, Senior Fellow at the World Policy Institute Mustapha Tlili, graduate student of political science Anne Kirkham, and undergraduate student Colin Walsh Links: www.freensu.org, www.newschool.edu/admin/pres/index.html 9:25-9:26 One-minute music break 9:26-9:37 NEW SCHOOL DEBATE CONT. 9:37-9:38 One-minute music break 9:38-9:50: We go now to a question and answer session which took place after the panel members made their statements. Audience members were allowed two minutes to ask their questions and panel members were given two minutes to respond. Democracy Now! asked Bob Kerry if he would support a war crimes tribunal for his own role in massacring Vietnamese civilians. Then we asked if he would support barring CIA recruiters from college campuses or professors working for the CIA. Tape: public forum at New School University, 12/04/02, Q & A session with New School President Bob Kerry, students, and Democracy Now! Links: www.freensu.org, www.newschool.edu/admin/pres/index.html 9:50-9:58: The Manhattan district attorney is expected to call this morning for the full dismissal of charges against the five African-American and Latino young men who were convicted in the notorious1989 Central Park jogger case. The men were aged between 14 and 16 when they were convicted for participating in the brutal gang rape of the jogger, as well as for a series of muggings in April 1989. They each served up to 13 years in prison. They were convicted largely based on videotaped confessions that many believe were coerced. Much of what the youths said about the rape was incorrect, including when, where and how it took place. If Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau recommends dropping the charges today, it will have no immediate impact on the convictions of the five men Antron McCray, Kevin Richardson, Yusef Salaam, Raymond Santana and Kharey Wise. Only the judge presiding over the case, Charles Tejada, can vacate the guilty verdicts, a decision that is considered likely but not imminent. Newsday is reporting that this could be the largest multi-defendant case ever overturned on faulty confessions. The case was revisited earlier this year when convicted rapist and murderer Matias Reyes confessed that he alone had raped the woman in Central Park on April 19, 1989. DNA evidence backed up Reyes confession. No other biological evidence was left at the crime scene. Reyes was never questioned at the time of the crime. But The New York Times is reporting that an NYPD sex crimes detective in 1989 had determined Reyes to be a prime suspect in another Central Park rape that occurred just two nights before the April 19th attack. But, the Times reports, the detective was soon transferred to another case. Reyes was never questioned. He would go on to rape and kill one woman and rape three more on the Upper East Side. He was never linked to the Central Park Jogger case, which at the time was considered a closed case. A reconstruction of the night of the crime by the New York Times has also displayed a significant conflict: at the time the jogger was believed to have been attacked, the police also claimed that the teenagers were involved in muggings elsewhere in the park. But no evidence beyond the tainted videotaped confessions implicate the boys in the muggings either. Guest: Michael Warren, attorney for three of the Central Park Jogger defendants Past Democracy Now! coverage of the Central Park Jogger case: Dec. 3, 2002: Manhattan DA Set to Determine the Fate of the Central Park Jogger Rape Case this Week: Pulitzer Prize-winning Journalist Sydney Schanberg Discusses the New Evidence and the Power Politics that have Always Swirled Around this Controversial Case http://www.webactive.com/pacifica/demnow/dn20021203.html Oct. 31, 2002: Juror Speaks Out Against Convictions in the Central Park Jogger Case: A Meeting Between the Juror and the Mother of One of the Young Men Who Was Sentenced to 10 Years in Prison http://www.webactive.com/pacifica/demnow/dn20021031.html Sept. 20, 2002: The Manhattan District Attorney s Office Asks for More Time to Investigate the Famous Central Park Case: A Roundtable Discussion on Forced Confessions http://www.webactive.com/pacifica/demnow/dn20020920.html Sept. 6, 2002: Central Park Jogger Case is Reopened After New DNA Evidence Shows Five African-American and Latino Youths who were Imprisoned for Years Did Not Commit the Rape http://www.webactive.com/pacifica/demnow/dn20020906.html 9:58-9:59 Outro and Credits