Show Details for March 11th, 2007

This week’s Guests:

  — CATHERINE LUTZ on US empire and militarism

  — MARJORIE COHN on Nat’l Security Letters and on women in the military

 

CATHERINE LUTZ on US empire and militarism

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George W. Bush turns his attention to Latin America with his visit there this week.  Meanwhile, protests and the International Conference for the Abolition of Foreign Military Bases are going on in Ecuador.

The Monitor takes this opportunity to revisit American empire and increasing militarism.  We’ve previously discussed these issues with Chalmers Johnson, author of “The Sorrows of Empire: Militarism, Secrecy and the End of the Republic,” and with Cynthia Enloe, author of “Macho, Macho Military.”

Our first guest this evening is Catherine Lutz.  She is Professor of Anthropology at Brown University, with a joint appointment at the Watson Institute for International Studies.  A thread running through her research is the issue of power and inequality.

For the last ten years, she has focused on questions of militaries, war, and society. Through research around military bases in North Carolina, Guam, Okinawa, South Korea, and the Philippines, she has examined the impact of military spending and military practice on communities in political economic and cultural historical perspective.  Some of her research has been conducted for service and activist organizations, including a domestic violence shelter, Cultural Survival, and the American Friends Service Committee.

Prof. Lutz is editor of the forthcoming book, “Bases, Empire and Global Response.”

QUOTE:
“Military bases show us both the coercive underpinnings and the political/economic complexion of the U.S.’s global position.  … Officially, a quarter of a million U.S. troops are massed in 737 major bases in 130 countries in facilities worth $115 billion.”

CURRENT ARTICLE (drawn from her forthcoming book by the same name):
“Bases, Empire, and Global Response”
by Catherine Lutz
Winter 2007
http://www.forusa.org/fellowship/winter07/catherinelutz.html

PREVIOUS ARTICLE:
“Making War at Home in the United States : Militarization and the Current Crisis”
American Anthropologist, 2002, 104 (3): 723-35

WEBSITE FOR FURTHER INFO:
International Network for the Abolition of Foreign Military Bases
http://www.no-bases.net

MARJORIE COHN on abuse by FBI of Nat’l Security Letters, and on women in the military

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Law professor Marjorie Cohn is a frequent legal analyst on The Monitor.

Monitor co-host Mark Bebawi will discuss with her the abuse of National Security Letters by the FBI.  In addition, we will discuss women in the military (see article link below).  If time permits, we’ll touch on the White House push to remove certain federal prosecutors, as well as the Scooter Libby
conviction.

Professor Cohn is the President of the National Lawyers Guild, and is a professor of law at Thomas Jefferson School of Law, where she teaches criminal law and procedure, evidence, and international human rights law. Her forthcoming book is entitled “Cowboy Republic: Six Ways the Bush Gang Has Defied the Law.”

 

She lectures throughout the world on international human rights and US foreign policy. Professor Cohn has written columns for the Los Angeles Daily Journal and the San Francisco Daily Journal, is a news consultant for CBS News, and a legal analyst for Court TV. She has provided legal and political commentary on BBC, CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, NPR, Truthout, and Pacifica Radio.

She is co-author of the book “Cameras in the Courtroom: Television and the Pursuit of Justice.”  She was a legal observer in Iran on behalf of the International Association of Democratic Lawyers, and she has participated in delegations to Cuba, China and Yugoslavia. She has lived in Mexico and is fluent in Spanish.

WEBSITE:
www.marjoriecohn.com

FORTHCOMING BOOK:
“Cowboy Republic: Six Ways the Bush Gang Has Defied the Law”
Will be published in July, 2007
[The six ways: illegal invasion and occupation of Iraq; the policy of
torture; war crimes; Guantanamo’s kangaroo courts; unconstitutional laws; and the
unlawful surveillance of American citizens.]

ARTICLE:
“The Private War of Women Soldiers”
by Helen Benedict
Salon
March 7, 2007
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2007/03/07/women_in_military/index.html?source=rss
    QUOTE: Many female soldiers say they are sexually assaulted by their male
comrades and can’t trust the military to protect them.  “The knife wasn’t for the
Iraqis,” says one woman.  “It was for the guys on my own side.”