KPFA Flashpoints News Radio
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Monday, Dec 9, 2002 - Start Audio
-00:00 Dennis Bernstein: introduction: civil rights activists call for Trent Lott's resignation over Strom Thurmond slur.. popular elected Haitian and Venezualan presidents may be forced out of office by US commercial interests..
-00:54 Robert Knight and the Knight Report.. Robert: Iraq delivers document.. the whole thing forwarded to the US, contradicting earlier Blix statements.. interview with Jeff Halper of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions.. Iran.. Venezuala.. we mourn the death and celebrate the life of Philip Berrigan (link2)..
-08:06 music break: Opression, Cat Stevens -8:33 Dennis: civil rights activists angry at Trent Lott for saying segregationist Strom Thurmond would have made a great president.. many calls for Lott's resignation.. now w South Carolina NAACP VP Dr. Lonnie Randolph.. Dr. Randolph: people up in arms today, but I'm not surprised.. about the rebel flag *controversy*.. Dr. Randolph: I'm calling for Lott's resignation, he is a white supremacist.. -20:05 music break -21:14 Dennis: the situation in Venezuala seems to be getting worse everyday.. strange happenings.. now w British journalist Greg Palast and in Caracus, Znet contributor, journalist, Greg Wilpert.. Wilpert: the weekend tense because of the shooting.. maybe organized by the opposition itself.. three dead, wounded 28 others.. now a *general strike*.. media milking it for all it was not worth.. strike in the oil fields.. a class war in reality.. you can clearly see the class lines.. the Chavez supporters much darker skinned.. Dennis: the shooting by agents provacators?.. Wilpert: hard to tell.. not a Venezualan national (the shooter).. in questioning, he said he was paid by disident military.. now w Greg Palast: oil tankers stopped.. I met with the former head of OPEC.. a class war.. 80% of the public is brown and poor.. Chavez redistributionist program.. the news you're getting, is provided by the Venezualan news outlets.. violent anti-Chavez.. the media planned the last coup attempt.. about a SF Chronicle biased report.. about NY Times photos.. Palast: pro-Chavist demonstrators shot in the head by sharpshooters.. Dennis: about outside inflence in Venezualan affairs.. Otto Reich, Negroponte.. Palast: Chavez is a dark-skinned Indian.. the general strike a strike of executives.. Palast: they don't want to give up the power.. US has made very clear they support the overthrow of a duly elected president.. US military attaches in the prison where Chavez was (briefly) held.. Wilpert: US looking nervously at events in Venezuala.. about the anti-government press stimulating the problem.. the media puts on ten times the anti-government spokesmen as pro-Chavez spokesmen.. the Venezualan public starting to believe they do live in a totalitarian country.. Dennis: you report for the BBC.. about a report on the anti-government press.. Palast: a cabal of media moguls are trying to overthrow a duly elected government.. they are upfront about their bias and strategy.. NY Times headline: A Popular Rebellion Against Chavez.. equal popular movement for Chavez.. Wilpert: why is Chavez important to the poor?.. he has doubled the budget for poor, health care for poor, land reform for poor, urban and rural.. changes completely unheard of in this country.. that's why he has got the upper and middle class against him.. Palast: I see Chavez with a bullet in his head within 48 hours of an invasion of Iraq.. Bush won't leave him in, because Chavez is also head of OPEC.. the last they want is a long drawn out insurrection.. Wilpert: I think it will be harsh.. if the upper classes get power, there will be a lot of persecution going on.. reports from Venezuala at GregPalast.com.. Greg Wilpert's articles at Znet.org.. -42:45 Dennis: about how US supporting a coup against Aristide.. now w journalist Carazon (sp?), a grassroots media activist.. and w Pierre Laboisier of the Haiti Action Committee.. the mainstream media reports are wrong.. 100,000 people welcomed Aristide..
-56:03 End today's show. today's review by john lionheart
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