PNB Meeting - Jan 2007 - Executive Director Report

Article Index
PNB Meeting - Jan 2007 - Executive Director Report
Initial Goals and Assessment
Duties and Activities
Programming
Licensing and Distribution
Station Issues
Governance
Vision, Goals and Objectives
Footnotes
Appendix A
Appendix B

Appendix A

A PACIFICA EDITORIAL : Undoing the Damage

By Greg Guma

For centuries, people have had the basic right to appeal to courts if they’re unlawfully imprisoned. This basic right, the right of habeas corpus, the right to know why you are being detained or imprisoned and to challenge it, dates back almost 900 years, to the signing of the Magna Carta.

But like other rights, it has now become a casualty of the so-called war on terror. It’s another chapter in an old story.

When those in power can exploit a tragedy and appeal to fear, fundamental rights are often undermined and violated. The impacts may not last, but there is long-term damage -- and not only for the immediate victims. The damage is to the whole idea of free expression, freedom of association, and the right to assemble and disagree.

In October, President Bush signed a new law – the Military Commissions Act – giving himself extraordinary and chilling new powers, stripping detainees of the right to challenge their own detention, permitting use of coercive interrogation, and letting government bureaucrats decide what is and isn’t torture.

Even though control of Congress has shifted from the Republicans to the Democrats since then, enormous damage has been done.

Combined with other repressive moves over the past five years – warrantless wiretapping, secret subpoenas, ethnic profiling, and the Patriot Act, to name just a few -- this draconian law undermines fundamental constitutional provisions and the Bill of Rights, embraces police state tactics, and continues the long-term decay of democracy. It also puts U.S. troops at risk, making them more likely to be tortured if they are captured. As Yale law professor Bruce Ackerman explains, the impact of the Military Commissions Act goes beyond the legal struggles of suspects being held in Guantanamo Bay and other places. It actually authorizes the president to seize US citizens as enemy combatants -- even if they’ve never left the country. And once in prison, they can’t expect a trial by their peers or any other normal protections of the Bill of Rights.

When challenged about what looks like a drift toward fascism, war hawks and right-wing demagogues claim that “terrorists” have no rights. But who decides if someone is a terrorist, especially if no charges are brought forward, no transparent court proceedings are allowed, and the “information” being used is obtained by torture?

The Supreme Court has called the writ of habeas corpus “the fundamental instrument for safeguarding individual freedom against arbitrary and lawless state action.” But the current regime apparently cares little about that, and has instead made itself judge, jury and executioner. And Congress has let it happen.

The war on terror -- like the nuclear arms race -- is sure to be a war without winners. As long as the retail violence of desperate people is met with the wholesale violence of the US and other governments, it is still M.A.D. -- mutually assured destruction.

This is not what democracy is supposed to look like.

For almost 58 years, Pacifica Radio has used its resources to defend free speech, expose threats to justice, peace, and freedom, and participate actively in the search for solutions to tough political problems. At times that has meant taking a strong and unequivocal stand. This is such a time. Therefore, in the months ahead Pacifica will continue to air programs that critically examine the threats to basic rights that we all face.

The 2006 elections were a step back from the abyss. As some have claimed, they may have been a damning referendum on the war in Iraq, and the extremism of the Bush administration and the right-wing cabal that attempted to hijack our democracy. But one election won’t change everything – or even much, and the struggle is far from over.

The immediate work is to undo some of the damage, beginning with the restoration of basic rights like habeas corpus. For Pacifica Radio, that means countering appeals to fear with a narrative of hope. Informed Dissent – the national series we have offered this fall – has been one attempt to move in that direction.

Going forward, we will also try to keep a larger goal in sight. And what is that? Each individual may answer that question a bit differently. For now, let me simply suggest this: What we want – and need – is a better future, a world in which human solidarity and real freedom prevail, and a society in which people control their government rather than the reverse.

Pacifica Radio will do whatever it can. So, stay tuned.