Democracy Now! Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Today's Headlines

• Iran’s Guardian Council Rules Out Annulling Election
• Report: Iran Ordered Family of Slain Protester to Pay $3,000 “Bullet Fee”
• Obama Signs Bill Regulating Tobacco
• Judge Orders Release of Guantanamo Prisoner Once Held by Al-Qaeda
• 45,000 Pakistanis Flee Homes in South Waziristan
• Supreme Court Upholds Voting Rights Act
• Court OKs Gold Mine Dumping Toxic Waste into Lake
• Court Declines to Hear Valerie Plame Lawsuit
• NASA Scientist James Hansen Plans to Protest Mountaintop Removal
• Six UK Greenpeace Activists Arrested in Anti-Coal Action
• Napolitano Kills Spy Satellite Program
• Israel Releases Jailed Palestinian Parliament Speaker
• Canadian Firms Sued for Investing in Israeli Settlements
• Medical Group Provides Free Care for Uninsured Americans
• Nine Die in Washington, DC Train Crash

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  Education Secretary Arne Duncan Pushes to Aggressively Expand Charter Schools While Admitting Problems

  The Obama administration has made opening more charter schools one of its top priorities in its plans to improve the nation’s education system. On Monday, Education Secretary Arne Duncan spoke at the annual gathering of the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools in Washington, DC. His address came on the heels of a new Stanford University report that found that, on average, students in charter schools were not faring as well as students in traditional public schools. [includes rush transcript]

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  Deep Packet Inspection: Telecoms Aided Iran Government to Censor Internet, Technology Widely Used in US

  As thousands in Iran turn to the web to make their voices heard around the world, a new report finds telecoms in Europe have helped the Iranian government develop one of the world’s most sophisticated mechanisms to censor the internet. It’s called deep packet inspection, and it’s also being used here at home. We speak with Josh Silver, executive director of Free Press. [includes rush transcript]

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  Judge Orders Release of Guantanamo Prisoner After Seven Years, Saying Government Position "Defies Common Sense"

  A federal judge has ordered the release of another prisoner held at Guantanamo Bay, thirty-year-old Syrian national Abdul Rahim Abdul Razak Al Janko. In the year 2000, Al Janko was tortured by al-Qaeda, who accused him of being a Western spy, and he was imprisoned by the Taliban for eighteen months. He was then captured by the United States in 2002 and spent the next seven years in Guantanamo. On Monday, District Court Judge Richard Leon rejected the government’s position that Al Janko had once been a part of al-Qaeda, saying it “defies common sense.” We speak with British journalist Andy Worthington, author of The Guantánamo Files: The Stories of the 774 Detainees in America’s Illegal Prison.