Democracy Now! Monday, April 28, 2008

Today's Headlines

• NYPD Officers Acquitted in Killing of Sean Bell
• Afghan President Karzai Survives Assassination Attempt
• Bush Administration Claims It Can Ignore Anti-Torture Laws
• Pentagon Admits Planning Potential Military Action Against Iran
• Adm. Mullen Claims N.Korea-Syria Nuke Link
• Palestinian Family Killed in Israeli Shelling
• US Sergeant Acquitted in Killing of Unarmed Iraqi
• Pentagon Suspends Briefings for Retired Military Officers
• 27 UN Agencies Meet to Tackle Global Food Crisis
• Profits Soar for Global Agribusinesses & Speculators
• Bush to Veto Democratic Plan to Help Homeowners
• Canadian Police Arrest Five Mohawk Protesters

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  Following Acquittal of NYPD Officers in Sean Bell Killing, Advocates Call for Special Prosecutor in Police Brutality Cases

  In New York, a coalition of civil rights advocates are calling for a permanent state-level special prosecutor to handle police brutality cases following the acquittal of three NYPD detectives in the killing of Sean Bell. The twenty-three-year-old Bell died in a hail of fifty police bullets on the morning of what would have been his wedding day in November 2006. Two of his friends were also injured in the shooting. All three men were unarmed. We speak with Sanford Rubinstein, the attorney representing Sean Bell’s fiancee Nicole Paultre-Bell, and with Jessica Sanclemente, the co-coordinator of People’s Justice. [includes rush transcript]

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  Scott Ritter: By Releasing Intel, US Endorses Israel's Illegal Bombing of Alleged Syrian Nuke Site

  The head of the UN’s nuclear watchdog group, Mohamed ElBaradei, has criticized the United States for withholding intelligence that it says showed the construction of a nuclear reactor in Syria that Israel bombed in September. The International Atomic Energy Agency chief was critical of both the US delay in releasing the information and of Israel’s bombing of the site before the IAEA could inspect it. We speak with former UN weapons inspector in Iraq, Scott Ritter. [includes rush transcript]

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  Former Marine Returns to Iraq as Embedded Photographer Only to be Ordered Home

  James Lee is a former Marine from California who served two tours of duty in Iraq in 2001 to 2004. He’s been back in Iraq more recently, this time as an embedded photographer. Lee is now a journalism student at San Francisco State University and filed reports from Iraq for the college newspaper, the Golden Gate XPress. But earlier this month, Lee was abruptly de-embedded. On April 2nd, just before General Petraeus was due to brief Congress on progress in Iraq, Lee was ordered to leave Basra. [includes rush transcript]