Democracy Now! May 9, 2003

8:00-8:01 Billboard 8:01-8:06 Headlines 8:06-8:07 One-minute music break 8:07-8:20: The time was 1:30 in the morning. It was in a small town in Vermont. A local police officer was snapping photographs. Collecting evidence. This hardly makes for an interesting story. Except the uniformed officer was in room 211 of Spaulding High School in Barre, Vermont. The officer, who was on duty, wasn t investigating a crime. He was trying to document what was going on in the classroom of a pacifist history teacher. Well today we are joined by the teacher, Tom Treece, whose classroom was targeted by Officer John Mott. We tried to reach Officer Mott, but he did not return our calls. He recently explained his actions to the Barre Montpelier Times Argus: I wanted everybody to see what was in that room. He added, Having spent 30 years in uniform, I was insulted I m just taking a stand on what happens in that classroom as a resident and a voter and taxpayer of this community. <sum> Tom Treece, high school teacher in Vermont Link: http://rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/site_050603/content/eib_extra.guest.html 8:20-8:21 One-minute music break 8:21-30: Newsweek is reporting President Bush may try to invoke executive privilege to keep key documents relating to the September 11 attacks out of the hands of investigators with the independent panel created by Congress to probe all aspects of 9-11. Last week, we spoke with Newsweek investigative reporter Michael Isikoff, who said that administration officials are waging a behind-the-scenes battle to restrict public disclosure of an 800-page secret report prepared by a joint congressional inquiry. The report details intelligence and law-enforcement failures that preceded the September 11 attacks, including warnings given to President Bush and his top advisors during the summer of 2001. This week, Isikoff and Mark Hosenball are reporting chief that White House council Alberto Gonzales privately told the chair of the 9-11 panel Thomas Kean that the White House may seek to invoke executive privilege over documents sought by the commission. (Thomas Kean is the former Republican governor of New Jersey who Bush named to chair the panel.) Among the most sensitive documents the commission is interested in reviewing are internal National Security Council minutes from the spring and summer of 2001. That is when the CIA and other intelligence agencies were warning that an attack by Al Qaeda could well be imminent. The panel is also expected to seek interviews with key players in the Bush administration such as national security adviser Condoleezza Rice. And the panel will likely request to review debriefings of key Al Qaeda suspects who have been arrested. <sum> Stephen Push, with Families of September 11. His wife of 21 years, Lisa J. Raines, was on American Airlines Flight 77 that crashed into the Pentagon on September 11, 2001. Links: http://www.familiesofseptember11.org/home.asp http://www.msnbc.com/news/910676.asp?0cv=KB10 8:35-8:45: Thirty years ago this week, the American Indian Movement ended its occupation of the village of Wounded Knee on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. The siege lasted 71 days, and drew international attention to the plight of Indigenous people within the borders of the US. The US government responded to the occupation with a full military siege that included armored personnel carriers, F-4 Phantom jets, US Marshals, FBI, State and local law enforcement, and the development of a corrupt vigilante group of Pine Ridge Reservation natives called the Guardians of the Oglala Nation, or GOONs. Two activist occupiers were killed by sniper fire. About a dozen solidarity activists disappeared when they attempted to run supplies in by foot overnight. The settlement is known as Wounded Knee II. The occupation of Wounded Knee is considered the beginning of what Oglala people refer to as the Reign of Terror, from 1973-76. Over 60 residents were killed in this period, their murders went uninvestigated by the FBI, which had jurisdiction. The period culminated in the June 26th shootout for which Leonard Peltier is still imprisoned. Today, government intrusion and land grabs continue to strip the Lakota/Dakota/Nakota of their traditional land. An encampment has just gone up along the Missouri River to stop the construction of a landfill and state park on a site where the remains of Indigenous people have been discovered. <sum> Madonna Thunder Hawk, member of the Lakota-Dakota-Nakota Nation, who participated in the occupation. (The U.S. government refers to her Nation as the Sioux.) Thunderhawk is a veteran of most every modern Native American struggle, from the occupation of Alcatraz to the siege of Wounded Knee. She is a long-time community organizer with experience in Indian rights protection, cultural preservation, economic development and environmental justice. Thunder Hawk was a co-founder and spokesperson for the Black Hills Alliance, which blocked Union Carbide from mining uranium on sacred Lakota land. She co-founded Women of All Nations and the Black Hills Protection Committee (later the HeSapa Institute). <sum> Faith Spotted Eagle, who is organizing against the construction of a waster dump and fish cleaning area for campers at a Native American burial ground near Pine Ridge 8:40-8:41 One Minute Music Break 8:45-8:58: The Bush daughters have once again found themselves in the press this week for their alleged drug use. Actor Ashton Kutcher told Rolling Stone magazine how a year and a half ago he saw Jenna and Barbara smoking marijuana. He said one night I go upstairs to see another friend and I can smell the green wafting out under his door. I open the door and there he is, smoking out the Bush twins on his hookah." If the Bush daughters were caught doing this in New York, they could land serious jail time. This week is the 30th anniversary of the Rockefeller drug laws. In 1973, New York governor Nelson Rockefeller pushed through State legislature the first laws in the nation that require minimum sentences for first-time drug users. The Rockefeller drug laws mandate a minimum of 15 years for first-time, nonviolent drug users who are caught with small amounts of drugs. Dozens of other states and the federal government rushed to adopt their own versions of the Rockefeller drug laws when New York State set the precedent. But people like Barbara and Jenna Bush don t need to be too afraid. Most the people imprisoned by these laws are poor, and most of them are people of color. Yesterday in New York, a coalition of politicians, celebrities, and mothers of prisoners rallied outside Governor George Pataki s office to demand the repeal of the drug laws. Hip-hop promoter and producer Russell Simmons, former New York Housing and Urban Development Secretary Andrew Cuomo, Actors Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins, and New York Reverend Al Shartpon were among those who spoke. <sum> Russell Simmons, founder of Def Jam Records, one of the most successful recording executives, producers, and promoters in the hip hop world, and co-founder of the Hip-Hop Summit Action Network <sum> Jason Flom, president and CEO of LAVA records <sum> Reverend Al Sharpton, civil rights leader 8:58-8:59 Outro and Credits Democracy Now! is produced by Kris Abrams, Mike Burke, Angie Karran, Sharif Abdul Kouddous, Ana Nogueira, Elizabeth Press with help from Noah Reibel and Vilka Tzouras. Mike Di Filippo is our music maestro and engineer. Thanks also to Uri Galed, Angela Alston, Emily Kunstler, Orlando Richards, Simba Rousseau, Rafael delaUz, Gabriel Weiss, Johnny Sender, Rich Kim, Karen Ranucci, Fatima Mojadiddy, Denis Moynihan and Jenny Filipazzo.