Democracy Now! Friday, May 2, 2008

Today's Headlines

• Al Jazeera Cameraman Sami al-Haj Freed From Guantanamo
• 36 Killed, 65 Wounded in Baghdad Suicide Bombing
• Turkey Resumes Attacks in Northern Iraq
• Protests Mark 5 Years Since “Mission Accomplished”
• Tens of Thousands Rally for Immigrant Rights
• Dockworkers Shut Down Ports in Antiwar Protest
• Bush Admin Forces Out EPA Regulator Who Sought Regulation of Dow
• Bush Proposes Additional Food Aid
• Exxon Posts $10.89B Quarterly Profit
• Nicaraguan President Accuses US of Destabilization
• New Zealand Activists Damage US-Linked Spy Base

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  After More than Six Years, Al Jazeera Cameraman Sami al-Haj Released from Guantanamo Bay

  Arrested in Pakistan in December 2001, Sami al-Haj spent nearly six-and-a-half years at Guantanamo without charge or trial. He had been on a more than a year-long hunger strike to protest his imprisonment. We hear al-Haj’s first public remarks from his hospital bed in Sudan and speak to his brother, Asim al-Haj. [includes rush transcript]

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  Southern California Residents Gear Up for New Fight to Stop Secretive Expansion by Military Firm Blackwater

  Just two months after local opposition thwarted its effort to build a massive outdoor training facility near San Diego, the private military company Blackwater USA is being accused of secretly trying to build a new one just blocks from the US-Mexico border. Blackwater received approval for the 61,000 square-foot indoor facility in Otay Mesa, California, by filing for permits using the names of two subsidiaries. [includes rush transcript]

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  25,000 Dockworkers Shut Down West Coast Ports in Historic Antiwar Protest

  In the largest labor strike since the invasion of Iraq, ports along the West Coast—all twenty-nine of them—were shut down as some 25,000 dockworkers went on a one-day strike to protest the war. We speak to Jack Heyman of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union. [includes rush transcript]

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  Secretaries of State Debra Bowen of California and Robin Carnahan of Missouri on Voting Issues in a Year of Soaring Turnout

  We speak to the top election officials from two states—California Secretary of State Debra Bowen and Missouri Secretary of State Robin Carnahan—about some of the contentious issues facing the American electorate ahead of the November presidential election. Earlier this week, the Supreme Court upheld an Indiana law requiring voters to show photo identification. Many Democrats and civil rights groups have opposed the law, saying it is a thinly veiled effort to suppress elderly, poor and minority voters, those most likely to lack proper ID and who tend to vote for Democrats. [includes rush transcript]