Democracy Now! Monday, April 6, 2009

Today's Headlines

• At Least 179 Killed in Italian Earthquake
• Red Cross: US Medical Personnel Involved in Torture of Prisoners
• Report: Senate GOP Threatens to Block Nominees Over Torture Memo
• Obama: US Not at War with Islam
• US to Increase Use of Drones in Pakistan
• Gates Calls for Pentagon to Spend More on Counterinsurgency
• 122 Aid Workers Killed in 2008; Highest Total on Record
• Arkansas Democrat Opposes Employee Free Choice Act
• Hedge Fund Faces Charges Connected to Madoff Ponzi Fraud
• 15th Anniversary of Rwandan Genocide Marked
• Tamil Protesters Stage Protest in London
• British Police Accused of Hitting Man Who Died at G20 Protest
• Motorola Boycott Organizers Claim Victory
• Antarctic Ice Bridge Collapses
• Vermont Governor Vetoes Same-Sex Marriage Bill

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  Supreme Court Denies Appeal for Death Row Prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal

  The Supreme Court has denied an appeal from the journalist and former Black Panther Mumia Abu-Jamal. On Monday, the court rejected without comment Abu-Jamal’s bid to overturn his conviction for the 1981 killing of a white police officer following a controversial trial before a predominantly white jury. Abu-Jamal contends the case was marred with racial bias, including the deliberate exclusion of blacks from the jury. “It shows you that precedent means nothing, that the law is politics by other means,” Abu-Jamal said in response to the ruling.

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  A Roundtable of Local Florida Journalists on the Future of Newspapers, the Role of Community Media and Cubans in Florida

  As we broadcast from Tampa, Florida, we host a roundtable discussion about the state in Florida with Marty Petty, the executive vice president and publisher of the St. Petersburg Times, Florida’s largest newspaper; Patrick Manteiga, publisher and editor of La Gaceta Newspaper, one of the oldest minority-owned newspapers in the United States; and Rob Lorei, news director of community radio station WMNF.

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  Florida Student Arrested by Immigration Three Days After Acquittal on Bomb Charges

  Immigration officials have arrested a twenty-three-year-old Florida student just three days after a jury acquitted him on federal explosives charges. Youssef Megahed was arrested in the parking lot of a Wal-Mart store Monday, where he had gone shopping with his father. He had just begun a fast to celebrate his acquittal. Megahed’s attorneys say he now faces deportation proceedings, apparently on the same charges for which he was found not guilty. [includes rush transcript]

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  Guantanamo Attorneys Face Possible Prison Time for Letter to Obama Detailing Client's Allegations of Torture

  Attorneys Clive Stafford Smith and Ahmad Ghappour could face six months in a US prison because of a letter they sent to President Obama explaining their client’s allegations of torture by US agents. Smith and Ghappour represent Binyam Mohamed, the British resident recently released after seven years in US custody, where he claims he was repeatedly tortured, first in a secret CIA prison and later at Guantanamo.