Democracy Now! June 6, 2002

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Program Title:
Democracy Now! June 6, 2002
Series Title:
PRA Archive #: 
PZ0450.179
Description: 

A DEBATE ABOUT A PROPOSAL TO APPLY A CIVIL WAR ERA ANTI-FRAUD LAW TO TODAY'S WHITE COLLAR CRIME

Date: Thursday, June 6, 2002 9:00-9:01 Billboard: What do diseased mules, broken muskets, and the Enron scandal have in common? A lot, if an Alabama law professor has her way. As corporate crime reaches unprecedented levels, we'll have a debate about a proposal to apply a Civil War era anti-fraud law to today's white collar crime. Then, as Attorney General John Ashcroft announces a new program requiring tens of thousands of Muslim and Middle Eastern visa holders to be fingerprinted, photographed, and registered before entering the country, we'll talk about racism and civil liberties. And we'll take a trip back in time to the days of COINTELPRO with part 2 of the documentary 'Me and My Shadow"9:01-9:06 Headlines:BEYOND GROUND ZERO Hundreds of low-income New Yorkers marched through lower Manhattan yesterday to protest the cover-up of September 11ths toxic aftermath. They also demanded the Red Cross and FEMA change their disaster relief procedures, saying they discriminate against immigrants and low-income people. Guest: Michael Andrade-Lalan, Representative, Beyond Ground Zero Coalition and Member, National Mobilization Against S Contact: http://www.nmass.org/9:06-9:07 One Minute Music Break 9:07-9:25 AS CORPORATE CRIME REACHES UNPRECEDENTED LEVELS, WE'LL HAVE A DEBATE ABOUT A PROPOSAL TO APPLY A CIVIL WAR ERA ANTI-FRAUD LAW TO TODAY'S WHITE COLLAR CRIME The Sunday New York Times reported that white-collar crime is soaring. Federal and state officials say that murder, robbery, assault rates have declined in the last decade. But, in the words of the editor of White Collar Crime Reporter Peter Goldmann, white-collar crime is spinning through the roof. He says, It's spinning new varieties daily and the incidence and amounts of money being stolen are incredible. A week does not go by without news of new scandals breaking and investigations getting underway, including Enron, Arthur Anderson, Merrill-Lynch, Qwest Communications, and Xerox. Just yesterday, headlines around the world blared that the former chairman and chief executive of Tyco International has been indicted on charges of over $1 million in tax evasion. Also yesterday, the CEO of Goldman Sachs made a rare public appearance at the national press club, urging reform in corporate management. The phenomenon last occurred during the savings and loan crisis a decade ago, and to some extent during the Great Depression. But this wave is different. Some statistics indicate fraud cases ware actually on the rise during the 1990s boom. Analysts generally attribute the recession that followed to the over-valuing of the dot-com industry. But it's starting to emerge that white collar crime may also have contributed to the recession. All of this is happening as the FBI has announced an overhaul of the agency. The FBI is shifting nearly 500 agents from drug and criminal investigations into the so-called war on terrorism. Today, we're going to have a debate about what to do about white-collar crime. But first we turn to Corporate Crime Reporter Russell Mokhiber to give us an overview of this new wave of corporate crime. GUEST: RUSSELL MOKHIBER, Editor of the Corporate Crime Reporter and host of Pacifica Radios new program, Challenging Corporate Power, which airs every Tuesday at 11 am on WPFW. GUEST: PAM BUCY, Bainbridge Professor of Law at the University of Alabama and author of White Collar Crime: Cases and Materials, and Health Care Fraud: Enforcement and Compliance. GUEST: JOHN T. BOESE, partner at Fried Frank Harris Shriver and Jacobson in Washington DC. His firm is one of the leading law defense firms in white-collar crime cases. He is also the author of Civil False Claims and Qui Tam Actions. 9:30-9:31 One Minute Music Break 9:31-9:40 ATTORNEY GENERAL JOHN ASHCROFT REQUIRES TENS OF THOUSANDS OF MUSLIM AND MIDDLE EASTERN VISA HOLDERS TO BE FINGERPRINTED, PHOTOGRAPHED, AND REGISTERED BEFORE ENTERING THE COUNTRY: A LOOK AT RACIAL PROFILING AND CIVIL LIBERTIES FBI Director Robert Mueller announced yesterday that the FBI has placed a substantial number of people who may have ties to al-Qaeda under 24-hour surveillance. He said the bureau has been "pushed, really pushed'' to track all the terror suspects. Mueller explained that a suspect could be someone who phoned a prominent terrorist overseas or someone who passes out pro-bin Laden literature. Mueller's announcement follows shortly after Attorney General John Ashcroft announced a new program yesterday requiring tens of thousands of Muslim and Middle Eastern visa holders to be fingerprinted, photographed, and registered with the government before entering the country. Only "individuals from countries who pose the highest risk to our security" will have to register. Ashcroft refused to name particular countries, but sources said the effort would focus primarily on men from Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Somalia, and Pakistan. Ashcroft said he expects about 100,000 visitors to be fingerprinted and photographed during the program's first year. They would then be required to register periodically after that. They would also have to verify they were following their stated itinerary. Ashcroft called early results of the pilot program "extremely promising."But civil liberties and Arab-American groups say the regulations are racist and would be more appropriate in a police state. Representative John Conyers called the initiative "shocking" and "Orwellian." Guest: David Cole, professor, Georgetown University Law Center and a volunteer staff attorney for the Center for Constitutional Rights. He is the author of No Equal Justice: Race and Class in the American Criminal Justice System (New Press, 1999 as well as the co-author of Terrorism and the Constitution: Sacrificing Civil Liberties in the Name of National Security. 9:30-9:31 One Minute Music Break 9:31-9:58?:<-109>ME AND MY SHADOW?: A HISTORY OF THE FBI?:<-110>S COVERT OPERATIONS AND COINTELPRO Today on Democracy Now! we are going to return to the era of the FBI?:<-110>s domestic so-called counter-intelligence?: program, or COINTELPRO.In early 1971, COINTELPRO came to light when a "Citizens Committee to Investigate the FBI" removed secret files from an FBI office and released them to the press. Agents began to resign from the Bureau and blow the whistle on covert operations that went far beyond intelligence gathering. That same year, publication of the Pentagon Papers, the Pentagon's top-secret history of the Vietnam War, exposed years of systematic official lies about the war. The public exposure of COINTELPRO and other government abuses resulted in a flurry of apparent reform in the 1970s, but domestic covert action did not end. We turn now to the last section of a radio documentary called "Me and My Shadow: Infiltration Of The Left By The US Government," which we began playing on yesterday's program. The documentary was produced for Pacifica radio in 1976, just as the outline of the government's secret war against the left was beginning to emerge. In the documentary, you'll hear the voices of agent provocateurs, people the FBI hired to engage in violent acts, and to provoke others to do the same Tape: Me and My Shadow, produced by Adi Gevins and narrated by Don Sorta. 9:58-9:59 Outro and Credits

Date Recorded on: 
June 6, 2002
Date Broadcast on: 
June 6, 2002
Item duration: 
59 min.
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Distributor: 
WPFW; Amy Goodman, host. June 6, 2002
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