Mediaboss Marketing

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.

AMY GOODMAN: Today, a Democracy Now! special celebrating 25 years on the air. On February 19th, 1996, on the eve of the New Hampshire presidential primary, Democracy Now! aired for the first time on nine community radio stations.

AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now! From Pacifica Radio, Im Amy Goodman in Washington. Today on Democracy Now!, Live Free or Die, a look at the political landscape in New Hampshire, where the Republican Revolution has taken its toll.

ARNIE ARNESEN: If you want a taste of the country after the revolution, you might as well visit New Hampshire today, because were the state that has the most regressive taxes in the country, that doesnt have mandatory kindergarten, that doesnt invest in its infrastructure.

AMY GOODMAN: Also, the politics of race in the Granite State, and Money Talks: Who are the Millionaires Having Their Way in Washington?

JEFFREY KLEIN: You need to go up to Bob Dole, now that hes on the corporate welfare line, and say, you know, OK, thats a great thats great that youve taken up this plank. Whose corporate jet did you fly up here on? Dwayne Andreas, the number three on the Mother Jones list, or Carl Lindner, the number four on the Mother Jones list? You need to relentlessly expose them.

AMY GOODMAN: All coming up on Democracy Now! Today is Presidents Day, and tomorrow is the New Hampshire primary. Welcome to the maiden voyage of Democracy Now!, Pacificas daily national election show. Greetings to our audiences in California, Texas, New York, Pennsylvania, Washington, D.C., Washington state, Kansas City and Colorado. In this election year, were embarking on a nine-month journey through the country and hope to pick up community radio stations in many more states as we go, as we give voice to the grassroots.

AMY GOODMAN: And that nine-month project, well, began a quarter of a century ago. Thats right. Democracy Now! went on the air on nine community radio stations in 1996. It now airs in over 1,500 TV and radio stations around the globe and online at democracynow.org.

In 1998, Democracy Now! documented Chevrons role in the killing of two protesters who occupied a Chevron-owned oil platform in the oil-rich Niger Delta in Nigeria. Democracy Now!'s Jeremy Scahill and I traveled to the Niger Delta to investigate and produced this special documentary, Drilling and Killing: Chevron and Nigeria's Oil Dictatorship. This is an excerpt.

AMY GOODMAN: Until now, Chevron has claimed that its only action against the occupation was to call the federal authorities and tell them what was happening. But in a startling admission in a three-hour interview with Democracy Now!, Chevron spokesperson Sola Omole acknowledged that Chevron did much more. He admitted that Chevron actually flew in the soldiers who did the killing. And he further admitted that those men were from the notorious Nigerian navy.

SOLA OMOLE: I guess

AMY GOODMAN: Who took them in?

SOLA OMOLE: Whats that?

AMY GOODMAN: Who took them in?

SOLA OMOLE: Who took them in?

AMY GOODMAN: On Thursday morning, the Mobile Police, the navy?

SOLA OMOLE: We did. We did. We did. We, Chevron, did. We took them there.

AMY GOODMAN: By how?

SOLA OMOLE: Helicopters. Yes, we took them in.

AMY GOODMAN: Who authorized the call for the military to come in?

SOLA OMOLE: Chevrons management.

JEREMY SCAHILL: And so, here we have, on May 28th, 1998, Chevron flying in the Nigerian navy and the Mobile Police to confront a group of villagers who thought they were in the midst of a negotiation with the oil giant, which brings us to another admission by Chevron spokesperson Sola Omole. Again, listen carefully.

AMY GOODMAN: Were any of the youths armed?

SOLA OMOLE: I dont know. I dont know. I dont know. So I cannot say that they came armed with there was talk about local charms and all that, but thats neither here nor there.

AMY GOODMAN: So, you dont think that they came onto the boat armed, youre saying?

SOLA OMOLE: No. No.

AMY GOODMAN: The youths.

SOLA OMOLE: Mm-hmm.

ORONTO DOUGLAS: It is very clear that Chevron, just like Shell, uses the military to protect its oil activities. They drill. And they kill.

JEREMY SCAHILL: Again, environmentalist Oronto Douglas.

ORONTO DOUGLAS: They are shooting our people for just demanding for their right.

AMY GOODMAN: In 1999, Democracy Now! was in the streets of Seattle when tens of thousands of activists gathered to shut down a ministerial meeting of the World Trade Organization. In Seattle, we we spoke with Indian scientist and activist Vandana Shiva and Lori Wallach of Public Citizen.

LORI WALLACH: The WTO constrains every country government about literally the level of food safety it can provide its public, or whether or not poor farmers can have access to seeds, whether or not workers can be safe from asbestos.

VANDANA SHIVA: Actually, the secrecy through which WTO was born is apparent in the fact that most parliaments had no idea what was the content of this treaty til months after it had been ratified and signed in Marrakech. The WTO wrote the rules. It sits in judgment about implementation of those rules, and it writes the inquisition.

AMY GOODMAN: You are listening to Pacifica Radios Democracy Now!, broadcasting live from Seattle.

AMY GOODMAN: Democracy Now! grew into a daily television show in 2001, but one of our first broadcasts took place in August 2000 at the Republican National Convention in Philadelphia.

AMY GOODMAN: From Pacifica Radio, this is Democracy Now! Breaking with Convention: Power, Protest and the Presidency. George Bush accepts the Republican nomination for president. Well get reaction from Barbara Gonzalez and Jello Biafra. Also, a look at the conduct of the Philadelphia police this week and a tour through the Independent Media Center. All that and more, coming up on Pacifica Radios Democracy Now!

You are listening to Pacifica Radios Democracy Now!, broadcasting on community radio stations around the country, on public access TV stations around the country, on the internet, both live-streaming and videocasting at http://www.democracynow.org, in an unprecedented community-media collaboration. Im Amy Goodman, here with Juan Gonzlez, as we continue our reaction to the nomination speech of the acceptance speech of George W. Bush for nomination by the Republican Party as their presidential candidate. Juan?

JUAN GONZLEZ: Yes, as I said, an amazing speech by Bush in you know, he actually attempted, basically, to portray himself as a caring, sensitive, compassionate conservative. But the reality of the message that he was bringing, of increased military spending, of privatization of Social of portions of Social Security accounts, of charter schools that would help to begin to tear apart the public school system rather than raise the level of the public school system throughout, I think was one that was clearly, clearly at the right fringe of American politics today.

AMY GOODMAN: On Election Day in 2000, then-President Bill Clinton called Pacifica radio station WBAI in an attempt to get out the vote for Hillary for Senate and Al Gore for president. While he may have intended to spend about two minutes on the phone, WBAI host Gonzalo Aburto and I kept him on the line for about half an hour, asking him about topics that werent being discussed in the presidential race.

AMY GOODMAN: Mr. President, are you there?

PRESIDENT BILL CLINTON: I am. Can you hear me?

AMY GOODMAN: Yes, we can.

GONZALO ABURTO: Yeah.

AMY GOODMAN: Youre calling radio stations to tell people to get out and vote. What do you say to people who feel that the two parties are bought by corporations and that they are at this point feel that their vote doesnt make a difference?

PRESIDENT BILL CLINTON: Theres not a shred of evidence to support that.

AMY GOODMAN: President Clinton, U.N. figures show that up to 5,000 children a month die in Iraq because of the sanctions against Iraq.

PRESIDENT BILL CLINTON: Thats not true. Thats not true. And thats not what they show.

AMY GOODMAN: The past two U.N. heads of the program in Iraq have quit, calling the U.S. policy U.S.-U.N. policy genocidal. What is your response to that?

PRESIDENT BILL CLINTON: Theyre wrong. They think that we should reward Saddam Hussein says, Im going to starve my kids unless you let me buy nuclear weapons, chemical weapons and biological weapons. If you let me do everything I want to do, so I can get in a position to kill and intimidate people again, then Ill stop starving my kids. And so, were supposed to assume responsibility for his misconduct. Thats just not right.

AMY GOODMAN: President Clinton, since its rare to get you on the phone, let me ask you another question. And that is: What is your position on granting Leonard Peltier, the Native American activist, executive clemency?

PRESIDENT BILL CLINTON: Well, I dont I dont have a position I can announce yet. I think if I believe there is a new application for him in there. And when I have time, after the election is over, Im going to review all the remaining executive clemency applications and, you know, see what the merits dictate. I will try to do what I think the right thing to do is based on the evidence.

AMY GOODMAN: Many people say that Ralph Nader is at the high percentage point he is in the polls because youve been responsible for taking the Democratic Party to the right.

PRESIDENT BILL CLINTON: What is the measure of taking the Democratic Party to the right? That we cut the welfare rolls in half? That poverty is at a 20-year low? That child poverty has been cut by a third in our administration? That the schools in this country, that the test scores among since weve required all the schools to have basic standards, test scores among African Americans and other minorities have gone up steadily? Now, what

AMY GOODMAN: Can I say what some people

PRESIDENT BILL CLINTON: Let me just finish.

AMY GOODMAN: Let me just say

PRESIDENT BILL CLINTON: Let me now, wait a minute. You started this, and every question youve asked has been hostile and combative. So you listen to my answer, will you do that?

AMY GOODMAN: Theyve been critical questions.

PRESIDENT BILL CLINTON: Now, you just listen to me. You ask the questions, and Im going to answer. You have asked questions in a hostile, combative and even disrespectful tone, but I and you have never been able to combat the facts I have given you. Now, you listen to this.

AMY GOODMAN: That was President Clinton in a surprise call to WBAI on Election Day 2000. The White House would later call me and say they were thinking of banning me from the White House. I said, But he called me. I didnt call him.

As for Native American leader Leonard Peltier, he remains in prison to this day. I had a chance to speak to Leonard on the phone from prison in Florida in 2012 during the Obama administration.

AMY GOODMAN: Leonard, this is Amy Goodman from Democracy Now! I was

LEONARD PELTIER: Oh, hi, Amy. How are you?

AMY GOODMAN: Hi. Im good. I was wondering if you have a message for President Obama?

LEONARD PELTIER: I just hope he can, you know, stop the wars that are going on in this world, and stop getting killing all those people getting killed, and, you know, give the Black Hills back to my people, and turn me loose.

AMY GOODMAN: Can you share with people at the news conference and with President Obama your case for why you should be your sentence should be commuted, why you want clemency?

LEONARD PELTIER: Well, I never got a fair trial, for one. They wouldnt allow me to put up a defense, and manufactured evidence, manufactured witnesses, tortured witnesses. You know, the list is just goes on. So I think Im a very good candidate for after 37 years, for clemency or house arrest, at least.

AMY GOODMAN: That was Leonard Peltier. One guest whos appeared multiple times on Democracy Now! over the years is the imprisoned former Black Panther and journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal.

AMY GOODMAN: Were going to interrupt the broadcast because right now we have just gotten a call from Mumia Abu-Jamal from prison in Pennsylvania. Mumia Abu-Jamal is speaking to us for the first time no longer on death row.

OPERATOR: This call is from the State Correctional Institution at Mahanoy and is subject to monitoring and recording.

MUMIA ABU-JAMAL: Youve probably heard me refer to life as slow death row. It sounds a little dramatic, but it is really more truth to it than hyperbole. And thats because, you know, in Pennsylvania, it has the highest population, or one of the highest populations, in the state, of lifers in fact, juveniles with life sentences. And in Pennsylvania, theres no gradation: You know, all lifers are lifers, and thats for their whole life. Its slow death row, to be sure.

And when you see, as Ive seen, going to chow or going to a meal and seeing what I call the million man wheelchair march, it makes an impact on you. You know, you look up in the morning, and there are 30 or 40 guys going through the handicap line, and theyre in wheelchairs. And although some are young, most are quite old. Life means life in Pennsylvania.

AMY GOODMAN: The words of Mumia Abu-Jamal. After a break, well continue our look back at the past 25 years of Democracy Now!

[break]

AMY GOODMAN: Lila Downs, performing in our Democracy Now! studio.

On the evening of December 7th thats Tuesday at 8 p.m. Lila Downs will join Noam Chomsky, Angela Davis, Arundhati Roy, Winona LaDuke and others as we celebrate online 25 years of Democracy Now! We hope youll join us. Visit democracynow.org for details.

This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org. Im Amy Goodman, as we return to our look back at excerpts of Democracy Now! over the past quarter of a century. On the morning of September 11th, 2001, Democracy Now! was on the air when the World Trade Center was attacked. Broadcasting on radio for over six hours, Democracy Now! covered the attacks just blocks from ground zero.

AMY GOODMAN: The latest news we have is that there have been widespread attacks that include at least three commercial jet crashes we now believe perhaps four three commercial jet crashes into significant buildings. In the first attack, a plane hit the North Tower of the World Trade Center in Manhattan shortly before 9:00, followed by another plane into the second tower about 20 minutes later. Both towers later collapsed. About an hour later, a plane crashed into the Pentagon, part of which later collapsed.

AMY GOODMAN: Democracy Now! closely followed the fallout from the 9/11 attacks, both at home and abroad. In December of 2001, Masuda Sultan, an Afghan American woman, reported on Democracy Now! from Afghanistan about a U.S. air raid that killed 19 members of her family.

MASUDA SULTAN: They described the scene where they were running with their kids in their arms, dodging bullets left and right, while they had while they saw balls of fire falling down to the earth. They were just women and children running for their lives, being shot at by a helicopter hovering over their home. And these people were not Taliban supporters. They werent al-Qaeda fighters. They were simple Afghans, trying to stay safe in their own country.

AMY GOODMAN: After Masuda Sultan came back to New York, she came on Democracy Now! along with Rita Lasar, who lost her brother, Abe Zelmanowitz, at the World Trade Center.

RITA LASAR: I live on the 15th floor and ran to my neighbors house, and she has a clear view of downtown Manhattan. And I looked out her window and saw the second plane hit the second building. And it dawned on me: My brother works there.

I went down to the hospitals to see if his name was on a list. And then I realized he had died. And because he had stayed behind to stay with his quadriplegic brother Im sorry, friend, who couldnt get out, although he was on the 27th floor and he could have saved himself, he died.

And then President Bush mentioned him in the National Cathedral speech and cited him as being a hero. And I realized that my government was going to use my brother as justification for killing other people, and that had a tremendous impact on me. I didnt want that to happen, not in my brothers name.

MASUDA SULTAN: First of all, I want to express my condolences to Rita. I did before, but I think your brother is a hero, and youre a hero for continuing his legacy. And its amazing to me that someone whos lost so much isnt as revenge-hungry as some of the other people that seem to want to, you know, go start bombing whoever, wherever.

AMY GOODMAN: Masuda Sultan and Rita Lasar in our firehouse studio at Downtown Community Television, DCTV. Rita died in 2017.

As we continue our Democracy Now! journey through the decades, we turn to May 20th, 2002, when East Timor became an independent country after decades of occupation by Indonesia. I had been reporting on the East Timorese independence movement for years. On November 12th, 1991, journalist Allan Nairn and I were there when Indonesian troops armed with U.S. M16s opened fire on thousands of unarmed East Timorese civilians who had gathered at the Santa Cruz cemetery.

JOS RAMOS-HORTA: I lost one sister and two brothers.

EAST TIMORESE WOMAN: It was 10 days before I was to give birth. The army was shooting people, and they would die at our feet, but you couldnt stop to help them.

JOS RAMOS-HORTA: I know families that were totally wiped out.

EAST TIMORESE MAN: Two American newsmen badly beaten: Mr. Allan Nairn and Miss Amy Goodman.

AMY GOODMAN: The Indonesian army converged in two places.

ALLAN NAIRN: Hundreds and hundreds of troops coming straight at the Timorese.

AMY GOODMAN: When they came, they opened fire on the people.

PRESIDENT GEORGE H.W. BUSH: We pride ourselves, and I think properly so, in standing up for human rights.

AMY GOODMAN: At least 271 Timorese were killed that day. The Indonesian military fractured Allan Nairns skull. More than a decade later, East Timor became an independent country. Allan Nairn and I returned to the capital Dili for the celebration. Allan questioned former President Bill Clinton.

ALLAN NAIRN: In 1999, in April, the Indonesian military and their militias massacred 50 people in the rectory in Liqui. They hacked them with machetes. Two days later, Admiral Blair, the commander for the Pacific, your commander, met with General Wiranto, the Indonesian commander. He offered to help him in lobbying the U.S. Congress to get full U.S. military training restored. He made no mention of the Liqui massacre. During that same period, the Indonesian militias rampaged here in downtown Dili. They attacked the house of Manuel Carrascalo. They massacred the refugees there. Yet you continued for months with aid to the Indonesian military. Why?

BILL CLINTON: Whats your question, sir?

ALLAN NAIRN: Why did you continue with aid to the Indonesian military if they were killing civilians?

See original here:
Democracy Now! at 25: Celebrating a Quarter-Century of Independent News on the Frontlines - Democracy Now!