Tuesday, April 9, 2002

• Israeli Military Kills at Least 100 in Jenin Refugee Camp

  
  

  The fighting in the city of Nablus and the Jenin refugee camp is continuing. U.S.-made Israeli attack helicopters are bombing the refugee camp. Israeli officials are estimating that more than 100 Palestinians have been killed in Jenin alone and Al-Jazeera reports that nine Israeli soldiers have also died there.

• Reporters Under Attack in the Occupied Territories: Israeli Soldiers Raid the Office of News Organizations in Ramallah; CNN and the Associated Press Say Their Reports Are Being Submitted to Censors; t

  
  

  Yesterday, Democracy Now saw a CNN news zipper announcing that the Ramallah offices of CNN, Fox and other networks had been raided by the Israeli military. It also said that the news organizations had been told to run their reports by the Israeli authorities. But after scouring the internet and wires last night, we could find no other reports of this, aside from a sentence buried in a CNN story confirming that "Israeli forces raided the offices of several news organizations and one U.S. aid organization Monday, using gunfire and explosives to enter the buildings." The CNN story made no mention of having to clear reports with the Israeli authorities. But the Boston Globe reports this morning that Israel is considering litigation against news organizations that do not comply with its restrictions. An Associated Press report today says Israel’s military censor has ordered "significant deletions".

• A Pakistani Immigrant Sues the City of New York for $45 Million: He Says Police Officers Beat Him Up On the Six-Month Anniversary of the September 11th Attacks

  
  

  On March 11, the 6 month anniversary of the September 11 attacks, most Americans reflected on the day 2 planes toppled the towers of the World Trade Center and crashed into the Pentagon, killing some 3,000 people. Many also reflected on the changes last six months have brought.

• Earth First! Organizers Take On the FBI

  
  

  Yesterday morning, jury selection began in the case of Judi Bari vs. the FBI, almost twelve years after Bari and fellow Earth First! organizer Darryl Cherney were car-bombed in Oakland. On May 24, 1990, a bomb exploded in a car driven by long time environmental activists Judi Bari and Darryl Cherney. That spring, they were organizing a major Redwood Summer action that would have brought thousands of activists to California to protest destructive logging practices.

• A Tribute to the Great Paul Robeson: Actor, Singer, Activist, and Scholar

  
  

  We conclude today’s show with the words of another person who was harassed by the FBI for his struggle against injustice. Like Judi Bari, he refused to be intimidated into silence . He would have been 104 years old today. He is the great Paul Robeson: actor, singer, athlete, scholar. For years, Robeson was tracked by the FBI as well as the CIA, Department of State, and numerous other government agencies. Together they compiled tens of thousands of documents on him, which they used to bring him before McCarthy’s House Un-American Activities Committee. In 1949 Robeson was effectively blacklisted, and in 1950, the government revoked his passport. For eight years he was barred from travel, a prisoner in his own country.