Hiring
Sami al-Haj is a free man today, after having been imprisoned by the U.S. military for more than six years. His crime: journalism. Targeting journalists, the Bush administration has engaged in direct assault, intimidation, imprisonment and information blackouts to limit the ability of journalists to do their jobs. The principal target these past seven years has been Al-Jazeera, the Arabic television network based in Doha, Qatar.
Filed under Weekly Column
Democracy Now! has been selected as an Official Honoree at the 12th Annual Webby Awards in three categories: News, Political and Podcast.
Filed under D.N. in the News
Food riots are erupting around the world. Behind the hunger, behind the riots, are so-called free-trade agreements, and the brutal emergency-loan agreements imposed on poor countries by financial institutions like the International Monetary Fund.
Filed under Weekly Column
Amy Goodman appeared on The Tavis Smiley Show Thursday on PBS discussing her new book. Watch excerpts of the interview.
Filed under D.N. in the News
As the media coverage of the Democratic presidential race continues to focus on lapel pins and pastors, America is ailing.
Filed under Weekly Column
Sen. Barack Obama is clearly a bad bowler. But it was not too long ago that African-Americans were not allowed in some bowling alleys. In Orangeburg, S.C., three young African-American men were killed for protesting against that town’s segregated bowling alley.
Filed under Weekly Column
The American Psychological Association is in the midst of its own heated presidential campaign. The central issue is whether APA members should be banned from participating in “harsh interrogations.”
Filed under Weekly Column
It has been 40 years since Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in Memphis, Tenn., while standing on the balcony outside his room at the Lorraine Motel. King was there to support striking sanitation workers, African-American men who endured horrible working conditions for poverty wages. While King’s staff was opposed to him going, as they were scrambling to organize King’s new initiative, the Poor People’s Campaign, King himself knew that the sanitation workers were at the front lines of fighting poverty.
Filed under Weekly Column
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Another female employee of the military contractor KBR has come forward with allegations of rape in Iraq. The woman, identified by the pseudonym “Lisa Smith,” says two colleagues raped her at a southern Iraqi military base in January. She says a supervisor told her to “keep quiet” or face danger. “Lisa Smith” will be testifying publicly tomorrow before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Last year, former KBR employee Jamie Leigh Jones sued KBR and its former parent company Halliburton after she says she was drugged and gang-raped by employees of the company in Baghdad. Today, in their first joint interview, we speak to both of these women, who have bravely come forward with their stories. We also speak with journalist Karen Houppert, who broke the story of “Lisa Smith” in The Nation magazine. [includes rush transcript]
Global food prices have risen dramatically, adding a new level of danger to the crisis of world hunger. In Africa, food riots have swept across the continent, with recent protests in Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Mauritania and Senegal. In most of West Africa, the price of food has risen by 50 percent—in Sierra Leone, 300 percent. In the United States there has been a 41 percent surge in prices for wheat, corn, rice and other cereals over the past six months. We speak with Raj Patel, author of Stuffed and Starved: The Hidden Battle for the World Food System. [includes rush transcript]