The Monitor up at 6 Central: Ann Wright on Peace. EPIC on Privacy.

[SophieZ]

It's your world. Understand it!
December 18, 2005: The Monitor
(formerly called Sunday Monitor)


KPFT - Pacifica Radio
listen online at www.kpft.org
. . . in Houston, 90.1 FM
. . . . . or, in Galveston, 89.5 FM

6 pm Central
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. . . . . 4 pm Pacific

ARCHIVES
If you miss a show, you can find it on KPFT's archives. See archives list at end of this message. ARCHIVES are at a NEW ADDRESS on the web: http://archive.kpft.org

<> 6:00 pm CST -- HEADLINES

<> ~6:20 pm CST -- GUEST 1 -- Former Diplomat ANN WRIGHT re peace efforts



Colonel Ann Wright is a former US diplomat who is now a peace activist. As Deputy Chief of Mission to Mongolia, she resigned on the eve of the war with Iraq, writing that "This is the only time in my many years serving America that I have felt I cannot represent the policies of an administration of the United States."

Ann Wright was a diplomat for fifteen years and the Deputy Chief of Mission in the U.S. Embassies in Sierra Leone, Micronesia, and Afghanistan. Serving on the first State Department team to go to Kabul, Afghanistan, she helped reopen the U.S. Embassy in Kabul in December, 2001 as part of the rebuilding team. She also had assignments in Somalia, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Grenada and Nicaragua.

Colonel Wright is airborne qualified as a pilot. She has Master’s and Law Degrees from the University of Arkansas and a Master’s Degree in National Security Affairs from the U.S. Naval War College. She received the State Department’s Award for Heroism for her actions during the evacuation of 2,500 persons from the civil war in Sierra Leone, the largest evacuation since the evacuation of Saigon in 1974. She has also received two Superior Honor Awards and three Meritorious Honor awards. From the Department of Defense as an active duty military officer she received the Legion of Merit, the Joint Service Commendation Medal (two awards) and the Army Commendation Medal (two awards).

Since she left government service, she has been speaking out for peace. In August, she was in effect chief of operations at Camp Casey, the Crawford, Texas encampment of Cindy Sheehan and thousands of other people working to end the war in Iraq. She also spoke at an international peace conference in London, last weekend. She lives in Hawaii, but is visiting Houston today.

ARTICLES:
"International Anti-War Movement Builds at UK Conference," by Kevin Zeese, December 13, 2005, http://democracyrising.us/content/view/386/151

"Ann Wright: A Felon for Peace," Tomdispatch Interview with Ann Wright, November 11, 2005, http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/111105D.shtml

Ann Wright's letter resigning her diplomatic post and ending her government service, March 2003. http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0303/032103wright.htm

PS -- IF YOU MISSED some great photos from Camp Casey, including Joan Baez and Martin Sheen: http://www.alaskagyrl.blogspot.com/


<> ~6:40 pm CST -- GUEST 2 -- MARC ROTENBERG on privacy and government surveillance



Marc Rotenberg is Executive Director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) in Washington, DC. He teaches information privacy law at Georgetown University Law Center and has testified before Congress on many issues, including access to information, encryption policy, consumer protection, computer security, and communications privacy. He testified before the 9-11 Commission. He has served on expert panels on Cryptography Policy and Computer Security for the OECD, the Legal Experts on Cyberspace Law for UNESCO, and the Countering Spam program of the ITU. He chairs the ABA Committee on Privacy and Information Protection. He is a founding board member and former Chair of the Public Interest Registry, which manages the .ORG domain. He is editor of "The Privacy Law Sourcebook" and co-editor (with Daniel J. Solove) of "Information Privacy Law" (Aspen Publishing 2003). He is a graduate of Harvard College and Stanford Law School. He served as Counsel to Senator Patrick J. Leahy on the Senate Judiciary Committee after graduation from law school.

We will speak with him about the recent developments on the PATRIOT Act, this week's New York Times news that George W. Bush is allowing secret eavesdropping in the U.S. by the National Security Agency, NBC's news that the Department of Defense has been monitoring peace groups in the U.S., and the new "VIPR" program to put federal air marshalls undercover at bus stations, trains, and other transportation venues.

WEBSITE: Electronic Privacy Information Center -- http://www.epic.org/

ARTICLES:
"Bush Lets U.S. Spy on Callers Without Courts," by James Risen and Eric Lichtblau, December 16, 2005, New York Times, http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/1216-01.htm

"Bush Vows to Continue Spying on Americans," by Associated Press,
December 17, 2005, http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/121705Y.shtml

"Is the Pentagon spying on Americans? Secret database obtained by NBC News tracks ‘suspicious’ domestic groups," by Lisa Myers, Douglas Pasternak, Rich Gardella and the NBC Investigative Unit, December 13, 2005, http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10454316

"New TSA Surveillance Tactic Curtailed; Officials Confused Over Test of Air Marshals at Transit Hubs; Metro Not in Program," by Sara Kehaulani Goo, Washington Post, December 15, 2005, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/14/AR2005121402366.html

CO-HOSTS: Mark Bebawi and Pokey Anderson.


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ARCHIVES are at a NEW ADDRESS on the web:
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December 11
-- SAMIR KHADER re Al Jazeera
-- BRAD FRIEDMAN re election transparency fights around the country

[SophieZ]

1. Coming up at the top of the hour.

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