Sunday Monitor up at 6 CDT Houston London Florida Oaxaca

[SophieZ]

It's your world. Understand it!
July 24, 2005: Sunday Monitor


KPFT - Pacifica Radio
listen online at www.kpft.org
. . . in Houston, 90.1 FM
. . . . . or, in Galveston, 89.5 FM

6 pm Central
. . . . 7 pm Eastern
. . . . . . . 4 pm Pacific

ARCHIVES
If you miss a show, you can find it on KPFT's archives. See archives list at end of this message. Several on elections might be of interest!

<> 6:00 pm CDT -- HEADLINES

<> ~6:15 pm-- GUEST 1: ANN WRIGHT



Colonel Ann Wright is the former deputy Ambassador to Mongolia who resigned on the eve of the war with Iraq. In her letter of resignation to Secretary of State Colin Powell, she wrote that "this is the only time in my many years serving America that I have felt I cannot represent the policies of an administration of the United States."

She was a diplomat for fifteen years, including service in Afghanistan as deputy ambassador. She was also the Deputy Chief of Mission in the U.S. Embassies in Sierra Leone and in Micronesia. She received the State Department’s Award for Heroism. She is airborne qualified, and has a combined regular Army/Army Reserve service time of 29 years.

This brief excerpt of her speech involves US military recruiting in Third World countries. Colonel Wright spoke to a standing-room-only crowd in Houston last night. Wally James will introduce it.

--To hear Ann Wright's entire speech, tune into Wally James and the Progressive Forum on KPFT. The speech will run about 8 pm Central on Thursday July 28, 2005

--For more on the 300 Downing Street Memo events taking place around the country: go to www.afterdowningstreet.org

--For a write-up on our local event, themed No More Lies, go to "Overflow Crowd Packs Houston's Downing St. Memo Teach-In," by Bill Crosier of the local Progressive Action Alliance. http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/1007

<> ~6:20 pm CDT -- GUEST 2 MIKE GERMAN

A 16 year veteran of the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI), Mike German came forward to blow the whistle on perceived failings and misconduct within the agency. He recently went public with accusations that the agency mismanaged a terrorism investigation. The case is being investigated but it is unclear how far the investigation will go given the dismissal of Sibel Edmonds' case.

German had worked for years going undercover to infiltrate domestic terrorist organizations like white supremacist groups and anti-government militias. He claims that after many years of successfully infiltrating dangerous groups, his efforts to investigate an American group reportedly planning to support foreign terrorists was botched by the FBI. The ex-FBI agent also accused the agency of falsifying documents to discredit sources. Finally, German says the FBI punished him for raising his concerns to FBI officials by freezing him out and making him an outcast in the agency, which led to his leaving the FBI after 16 years of service.

Mark will talk with Mike German about events in London and Sharm Al-Sheikh, investigations, infiltrations of terror cells, and more.

<> ~6:40 pm CDT-- GUEST 3 SUSAN PYNCHON of Florida Fair Elections

Susan Pynchon, Florida Fair Elections Executive Director, has been one of the citizens in a fight to keep paperless Diebold voting machines out of Volusia County, Florida. Two disability groups have been pitted against each other in this protracted battle. One of the groups, National Federation of the Blind, has long been in a "strategic partnership" with Diebold.

Florida's Governor and Secretary of State have used heavy-handed tactics, placing huge pressure on the Volusia's County Council to purchase the non-verifiable voting machines made by Diebold. But, Council members refused.

Now, a federal District Court judge in Florida has ruled this week that Volusia County is not required to purchase touchscreen voting machines that do not produce a voter-verifiable paper trail. Pending appeal, the county may now move forward with its plans to purchase voting equipment that is both accessible and that creates an auditable paper trail to protect against errors and fraud.

To see WALDEN O'DELL, head of voting machine maker Diebold, speaking at a gala event of Diebold's strategic partner, National Federation of the Blind, go here: http://204.245.133.32/gala/galapics.htm

<> ~6:50 pm CDT-- GUEST 4 - SHANNON YOUNG -- OAXACA UPDATE


PHOTO: New York Times

In pre-dawn hours of June 17, the largest daily newspaper in the state of Oaxaca, Mexico, was blockaded by unruly thugs sympathetic to the government. Newspaper workers have been unable to get in or out, but have managed to send copy to another city to keep the paper publishing.

On Wednesday, approximately 3000 people marched through downtown Oaxaca City in to condemn attacks against the Noticias newspaper. After a one-month blockade at the paper's main office, 31 press workers who had been sequestered inside of their building were violently removed on Monday night by a group of around 100 men armed with bats and metal rods. Although the scandal is now receiving international press coverage, there has been relatively little action on the federal level to resolve the conflict. Live from Oaxaca City, Shannon Young reports. She follows up her report to Sunday Monitor of June 26. (The New York Times first covered it on July 18.)

CO-HOSTS: Mark Bebawi and Pokey Anderson

ARCHIVES are at http://www.kpftx.org/archives/kpftsignal/index.php Just look for SUNDAY MONITOR and the date of the show.

Last week's show, July 17
--GREG PALAST on Judith Miller, Karl Rove, and Valerie Plame
-- BETSY LEONDAR-WRIGHT on working with people from diverse class backgrounds

July 10
-- SUSAN KLOPFER, author of "Where Rebels Roost: Mississippi Civil Rights Revisited."
--RAY McGOVERN, co-founder of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity

July 3
--MARJORIE COHN, of the National Lawyers Guild, re Supreme Court confirmation battle to come.
--ELECTION PANELS AT ODDS. Excerpts. From journalist Lynn Landes (www.ecotalk.org), Dr. Richard Hayes Phillips, Green Party presidential candidate in 2004 David Cobb, Rev. Bill Moss of Ohio, Bev Harris of Black Box Voting.org, and Bob Fitrakis, co-author of "Did George W. Bush Steal America's 2004 Election?" and editor of http://freepress.org.

June 26
--CHIP PITTS, of Amnesty International
--SUSAN KLOPFER, author of "Where Rebels Roost: Mississippi Civil Rights Revisited"

June 19
Election Investigations from Florida, California, and Ohio --KATHLEEN WYNNE of Black Box Voting and technical consultant HARRI HURSTI of Finland
--BOB FITRAKIS, co-author of Did George W. Bush Steal America's 2004 Election? Essential Documents --Elections in Iran, with Kaveh Ehsani

June 12
--CHIP PITTS, of Amnesty International re Patriot Act, torture
--CLIFF ARNEBECK, public interest attorney of Ohio, updating the Ohio Coin Scandal plus the fight for transparent elections

June 5
-- ROBERT PARRY, author of Secrecy & Privilege: Rise of the Bush Dynasty from Watergate to Iraq

May 29
-- THE BREAKING OHIO SCANDAL, with guests Mike Wilkinson of the Toledo Blade and Ohio State Senator Teresa Fedor
-- FORMER AMBASSADOR JOE WILSON, author of "The Politics of Truth"


EVENT COMING UP: Veterans for Peace will hold its annual convention in Dallas, August 4-7. The speakers scheduled include, among others, Jim Hightower, Camilo Mejia conscientious objector, Cindy Sheehan of Goldstar Families for Peace and Dahr Jamail. For details: http://www.veteransforpeace.org

[PDittie]

1. Excellent report on our Teach-In last night, SophieZ

Were you in attendance?

I was with with merci me and johncoby at the back; near the front was Not Giving Up. I thought Col. Wright was a powerful speaker for truth to power.

I'm going to link this into the Texas forum's threads on the event.

[WestHoustonDem]

2. SophieZ are you a Houstonian?

Join us in the Texas forum - http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topics&forum=180