Show Details for May 27th, 2007

This week’s Guests:

— Attorney RANDALL HAMUD on America’s confused war on “the enemy”

— Environment writer KELPIE WILSON of TruthOut.org on the Big Dry in Australia

Special Comment by Keith Olberman:

Special Comment: “The only things truly “compromised” are the trust of the voters…friends, and family, in Iraq

Posted on Crooks And Liars – please visit that site regularly! http://www.crooksandliars.com

– Attorney RANDALL HAMUD on America’s misguided war on “the enemy”

Monitor co-host Mark Bebawi’s guest tonight is Randall Hamud. He is the editor of Osama Bin Laden: America’s Enemy In His Own Words.

On September 10, 2001, Randall, a graduate of UCLA Law School, was a civil lawyer in San Diego specializing in medical malpractice and insurance bad faith cases. On September 11, his practice and his life underwent a sea change. In representing three young, Arab-Moslem men who were arrested in San Diego shortly after 9/11 because they had been acquainted with two of the hijackers who had visited San Diego, Randall became one of the nation’s most ardent critics of the Bush administration’s domestic war against terrorism.
He was the first to raise the alarm about the physical and psychological abuse of post-9/11 detainees. He has also been an early and vocal critic of the Patriot Act. Across the country, city after city has enacted resolutions criticizing the provisions of the Patriot Act. And last year the United States Supreme Court told the administration that, indeed, “enemy combatants” do have recourse to the courts.
He was an early critic of the abuse of the material witness statute and the immigration laws in rounding-up thousands of Arab and Moslem men, including his clients, and holding them in secret custody. None of the detainees was ever charged with any roll in 9/11 or with planning any terrorist attacks here in the United States. He has also vehemently criticized the racial and ethic profiling of Arabs and Moslems.
Randall Hamud practices law in San Diego, and has been a guest speaker at the Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace & Justice in San Diego.

BOOK:
Osama Bin Laden: America’s Enemy In His Own Words
edited by Randall B. Hamud, J.D.
(Nadeem Publishing, 2005)
http://osama-bin-laden-book.com/

QUOTE BY RANDALL HAMUD:
“In Iraq, the administration is sowing the seeds of a global holy war between Christianity and Islam – a war that it cannot win.”

RELATED ARTICLE:
“GOP Rivals Embrace Unproven Iraq-9/11 Tie”
by Peter S. Canellos
May 27, 2007
Boston Globe
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/05/27/1486

-- Environment writer KELPIE WILSON of TruthOut.org on the Big Dry in Australia

Monitor co-host Pokey Anderson’s guest tonight is Kelpie Wilson, the T r u t h o u t environmental editor. Kelpie just returned from Australia, where a mammoth drought is affecting 40% of crops there, and could possibly cause major water shortages in two major cities with populations over 1 million. We’ll look at that, as well as a more hopeful development called terra preta, that could pull carbon out of the atmosphere and increase soil fertility while mitigating global warming.

Trained as a mechanical engineer, Kelpie has long been an environmental activist and writer. Her articles have appeared in Wild Earth, The Progressive, and the Earth First! Journal. She also does technical writing for the solar power industry. She and her husband live in a solar-powered cabin in the Siskiyou Mountains of Oregon. She has been living off the grid since 1990. She was an organizer for Earth First! — Exxon Valdez campaign in Alaska (1989) and of the Redwood Summer campaign in California (1990).

Her first novel, Primal Tears (North Atlantic Books) is an engaging look at the arbirtrary line between human beings and other animals.

WEBSITE:

www.kelpiewilson.com

KELPIE’S COLUMNS for Truthout:

www.truthout.org/docs_2006/kelpiewilson.shtml

RELATED ARTICLES on AUSTRALIA’S DROUGHT:

Australian cities facing ‘Big Dry’ water shortages
by Neil Sands
Sun Apr 29,
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070430/wl_asia_afp/unclimatewarmingaustralia_070430021020

Australia’s Water Shortage: The big dry
Apr 26th 2007
The Economist
http://www.economist.com/world/PrinterFriendly.cfm?story_id=9071007

FOR THOSE FOLLOWING ELECTION ISSUES: Pokey has a major article just published.

picture: http://www.votersunite.org/images/peerthruchinks.jpg

Peering Through Chinks in the Armor of High-Tech Elections

by Pokey Anderson
May 27, 2007
Voters Unite.org

http://www.votersunite.org/info/PeeringThruChinks.pdf

This problem attempts to build a bridge from the scattered, highly technical information about electronic elections, to the average interested citizen. On its first day of publication, it’s already been called: “Amazing, amazing work. Thorough, understandable, and crucially important.”

Show Details for May 20th, 2007

This week’s Guests:

  – Filmmaker RUSSELL MICHAELS, director of “Hacking Democracy” 

  – Filmmaker TOM O’BRIEN, director of ”Commander ‘N Thief” 

– Filmmaker RUSSELL MICHAELS, director of “Hacking Democracy” 

RUSSELL MICHAELS is the co-director (with Simon Ardizzone) of the documentary Hacking Democracy.  The film was filmed over a three-year period, was shown on HBO, and was just released as a DVD in March 2007. It shows the infamous Hursti Hack, done on the Leon County Florida optical scan voting equipment (made by Diebold), in front of the head of elections there.

Representatives of voting machine vendor Diebold, though admitting they had not seen the film, called it inaccurate before it aired and attempted to block its broadcast.  The film documents problems with US elections in 2000 and 2004,  Russell lives in London.

DVD:

Hacking Democracy  … www.HackingDemocracy.com

QUOTES BY RUSSELL MICHAELS:
“I found a story on the internet which Bev [Harris] had broken. And I rang Bev, and we basically swapped stories, and got to know each other over the phone. I realized that if half the stuff that Bev was telling me was true, and it all was true, then, I have stumbled on the most amazing, disturbing story.”

“It’s taken me three years of investigation with my co-producers to ask the right questions. And when you know the right question to ask, and when the wrong answer is clearly telling you a lie, then you know to ask that question again, and again, and again. People have the right to know how their democracy-America’s democracy-works. Or doesn’t.”

– Filmmaker TOM O’BRIEN, director of “Commander ‘N Thief” 

Our second guest today is director Tom O’Brien.  His new documentary, Commander ‘N Thief, was two years in the making.  It focuses on the Ohio 2004 presidential election, and includes appearances by Greg Palast, Congressman John Conyers, Jr.; attorneys Cliff Arnebeck, John Bonifaz, Robert Fitrakis, Joseph Geller, Peter Peckarsky and Susan Truitt; computer science expert Professor Avi Rubin of Johns Hopkins, Richard Hayes Phillips, Ph.D, statistical expert Dr. Steven Freeman of U of Pennsylvania; Bev Harris; Franklin County, Ohio Director of Elections Matthew Damschroder; and Ohio poll workers, concerned citizens, and community activists.

Although this is Tom’s first feature documentary, he has worked over ten years in ad agencies in freelance film and video production, including one year in which he produced and post-produced 26 videos.  He  is a graduate of the Broadcast and Electronic Arts Department of San Francisco State University.  Born in Libreville, Gabon, Tom grew up in Washington, DC and Northern California, and now lives in the DC area.Tom’s keen interest in American politics developed early in life.  His parents were involved in local, state and national campaigns dating back to the 1960 presidential campaign of John F. Kennedy. Tom worked in the presidential primary campaigns of Paul Tsongas (1992), and General Wesley Clark (2004). DVD:
Commander ‘N Thief … http://www.commander-n-thief.com

 

**** THIS DVD IS BEING OFFERED AS A THANK GIFT TO OUR PLEDGERS TONIGHT!  ****

REVIEW:
“Commander ‘N Thief,”a must-see documentary by Tom O’Brien
by Joan Brunwasser
OpEd News
http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_joan_bru_070520__22commander__n_thief_22.htm

QUOTE FROM REVIEW:
“Commander ‘N Thief is so chock full of material that it’s hard to know where to start. This documentary does a great job spotlighting the 2004 election, and goes farther than the others I’ve seen. … Commander ‘N Thief covers a topic that should be on every citizen’s mind. It should be the focus of conversation at dinner tables, web forums, coffee klatches, grocery store lines, everywhere and anywhere. Buy a copy of this film. Pass it around. Arrange a showing for friends and neighbors. Examine the evidence. Dispute it, if you can. And spread the word. As Brad “BradBlog” Friedman has so often said, we need to “be the media.” Someone’s got to do it.”

Show Details for May 13th, 2007

This week’s Guests:

– Journalist GREG PALAST and CorpWatch Managing Editor PRATAP CHATERJEE

– Journalist GREG PALAST

http://www.chartock.net/images/palast33.jpg

BBC reporter and author Greg Palast returns as our guest tonight. Monitor co-hosts Mark Bebawi and Pokey Anderson speak with him about the expanded paperback edition of his book, Armed Madhouse, released recently. The book has been called “at once scary, infuriating, fascinating and frustrating,” Palast himself has been dubbed “a fire-breathing investigative reporter.”

Armed Madhouse contains a new chapter discussing plans to steal the 2008 election. Palast is now working with Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. on election issues.
WEBSITE:
http://www.gregpalast.com

BOOK:
Armed Madhouse: From Baghdad to New Orleans — Sordid Secrets and Strange Tales of a White House Gone Wild

ARTICLE:
“RFK: Rove And Rove’s Brain, ‘Should Be In Jail,’ Not In Office”
May 7, 2007
http://www.gregpalast.com/rfk-rove-and-roves-brain-should-be-in-jail-not-in-office/#more-1725

QUOTE from above article:

“Voting rights attorney Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has called for prison time for the new US Attorney for Arkansas, Timothy Griffin and investigation of Griffin’s former boss, Karl Rove, chief political advisor to President Bush.

“Timothy Griffin,” said Kennedy,”who is the new US attorney in Arkansas, was actually the mastermind behind the voter fraud efforts by the Bush Administration to disenfranchise over a million voters through ‘caging’ techniques – which are illegal.”

Kennedy based his demand on the revelations by BBC reporter Greg Palast in the new edition of his book, “Armed Madhouse.”

– Journalist Pratap Chatterjee and Jeff Grubler

Pratap Chatterjee is the Managing Editor of CorpWatch and the author of ‘Iraq Inc.’

Visit The Reagan Home for the Criminally Insane for details and examples of Jeff’s work

Show Details for May 6th, 2007

This week’s Guests:

  – LAURA FLANDERS on reinventing progressive politics from the ground up

  — JONATHAN LANDAY investigates secret imprisonment of an American

 

– LAURA FLANDERS on reinventing progressive politics from the ground up

http://www.vermontwoman.com/images/articles/0505/flandersth.jpg

Pokey Anderson’s guest tonight is Laura Flanders.  Laura is the host of “RadioNation” heard Saturdays and Sundays, 6-9 pm Central Time on Air America.  

 

Her new book, just out, is BLUE GRIT: True Democrats Take Back Politics from the Politicians (Penguin Press, 2007).  Laura visited a number of “red” states and swing states over the course of a year, and found lively activism reinventing politics from the ground up. 

 

We’ve talked with Laura previously about her book BUSHWOMEN: Tales of a Cynical Species.

 

Before joining Air America, Laura hosted a show on public radio KALW in San Francisco.  Laura was founding director of the Women’s Desk at the media watch group FAIR and for more than ten years she produced and hosted CounterSpin, FAIR’s nationally-syndicated radio show.   She’s been a senior correspondent for the Pacifica radio network, and News Director of the Pacifica Network News.  Her writing appears in The Nation, Alternet, Ms. Magazine, and elsewhere.

 

FLANDERS’ WEBSITE:

www.lauraflanders.com

 

BOOK:

BLUE GRIT: True Democrats Take Back Politics from the Politicians

 

– JONATHAN LANDAY investigates secret imprisonment of an American

http://www.echochamberproject.com/files/0landay.jpg

Journalist Jonathan Landay is a regular guest at the Monitor. Last week we hoped to have him on, but a snafu intervened.

 

Recently he was a guest on Bill Moyers’ program, as one reporter who got it right early about the Iraq War, and chose to be an investigator rather than a stenographer for the administration’s claims.

Mark Bebawi will talk with him about his recent investigation into the fate of a US citizen currently in a secret prison in Ethiopia.  The prisoner, a Muslim of Tinton Falls, N.J., was among a number of people captured fleeing Somalia. 

Landay, a national security and intelligence correspondent, has written about foreign affairs and U.S. defense, intelligence and foreign policies for 15 years. From 1985-94, he covered South Asia and the Balkans for United Press International and then the Christian Science Monitor. He moved to Washington in 1994 to cover defense and foreign affairs for the Christian Science Monitor and joined Knight Ridder in 1999. Knight Ridder is now the McClatchy newspaper chain. 

Landay speaks frequently on national security matters, particularly the Balkans. In 2005, he was part of a team that won a National Headliners Award for “How the Bush Administration Went to War in Iraq.” He also won a 2005 Award of Distinction from the Medill School of Journalism for “Iraqi exiles fed exaggerated tips to news media.”

 

LANDAY’S WEBSITE:
http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/news/columnists/jonathan_s_landay

 

ARTICLES:
“Ethiopia decides not to free imprisoned American”
By Jonathan S. Landay
McClatchy Newspapers
April 24, 2007
http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/news/columnists/jonathan_s_landay/17129072.htm

“Terror attacks up 29%, [State Dept.] report says”
By Warren P. Strobel and Jonathan S. Landay
McClatchy Newspapers
April 27, 2007
http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/news/columnists/jonathan_s_landay/17145599.htm