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Aditi Tandon

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, November 26

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday called for a national awakening against family-based political parties describing outfits controlled and run by families as a danger to Indian democracy.

In wide-ranging remarks on the occasion of the Constitution Day celebrations at the Central Hall of Parliament, the prime minister also flagged the trend of public felicitation of politicians convicted of corruption as a matter of grave concern asking if this was the society we wanted for our youngsters.

He also questioned the past governments for not stressing constitutional duties enough and noted that if the path of duties had been emphasised after Independence, rights of the people would have been naturally secured.

But the PM's most direct attack was on dynastic politics.

"India is a democratic nation. Parties have their special significance and are a tool to taking the principles of the Constitution to the people. But can parties that themselves have lost democratic character protect Indian democracy? Today, India is moving towards a danger from Kashmir to Kanyakumari. Political parties for the family, by the family are a danger to democracy," the PM said in veiled attacks on the Congress and other family-run parties.

Drawing a distinction between families that send more than one person into politics on the basis of merit and parties that are controlled by a single family over generations, the PM said a national awakening is needed towards this threat.

"Family-controlled parties are a threat to our democratic character. They are the antithesis of what the Constitution teaches us. I dont say more than one people from a party cant enter politics on the grounds of merit but a party run by one family for generations, controlled by one family is a danger to democracy. We need national awareness to this end," said the PM, citing an example of Japan where a similar movement against dynastic politics succeeded.

The PM then went on to question people who fete those convicted of corrpution.

"Does the Constitution license corrpution? It is a matter of concern that after courts have convicted someone of corruption, there is a competition to fete and honour such people publicly for political purposes. What impression does such a trend give to youngsters? Won't they feel it is normal to be corrupt because society will accept you after some years? Chances for improvement should be given to such people but the competition to honour them in public is worrisome," the PM said.

He also lashed out at the past governments for squandering Mahatma Gandhi's legacy of stress on national duties saying had duties been emphasised right since Independence the rights of people would have been protected in normal course.

"Mahatma Gandhi in his lifetime stressed duties by way of cleanliness, women's empowerment. After Independence the seeds he had sown should have transformed into a thriving tree but governance structures that took root stressed only rights. It would have been better if after Independence, duties would have been emphasised. That way rights would have been protected on their own," the PM said, noting that fulfilment of duties led to the creation of a cohesive society and every time someone does their duty, someone else's right is protected.

The prime minister asked for moving towards the path where citizens seek to realise their rights through the performance of their duties.

The PM also took the occasion to take a jibe at the opposition with 13 parties, including the Congress, boycotting the Constitution Day event.

"I wonder if we could have written even a single page had we been tasked with the drafting of the Constitution in today's times when politics overwhelms national interest more often than not. The founders of the Indian Constitution, on the other hand, had national interest foremost in their minds and kept personal differences apart to give us the Constitution," Modi said to a thunderous applause.

He added that the Constitution Day event in Parliament was not a BJP or a government function.

"This is an event to hail the memory of Dr BR Ambedkar and other founders of the Constitution and has been organised by the presiding officers of the two Houses. Their chairs have a dignity which everyone must honour," the PM said, recalling that the opposition had similarly boycotted in Parliament his speech to mark the 150th anniversary of Dr Ambedkar.

The PM also asked past governments why they never thought of celebrating Constitution Day as a marker of evaluation of whether governance was headed in the right direction.

"These very people asked why the NDA government decided to celebrate Constitution Day. What was the need? It is surprising that while we hail an event associated with Dr Ambedkar's memory, such thoughts should even cross someone's mind. The country will not accept this," the PM said.

President Ram Nath Kovind also addressed the event calling for MPs to perform their duties as expected of them under the Constitution.

The President later led a joint reading of the Preamble.

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'Parties for the family, by the family' a threat to democracy: Modi - The Tribune

The big annual United Nations forum for debate on climate change ended this month in Glasgow in a way that left many attendees bewildered. Money men have taken the thing over.

COP26, as the event was called, was less like its predecessors and more like a second Davos the January meeting of the World Economic Forum where the global economys moguls and regulators meet to map out our economic future. Dozens of private jets arrived for COP26, bringing investors and fossil-fuel lobbyists in embarrassing profusion. The finance writer Gillian Tett noted that between 2015 and today, the tribe of COP attendees had been transformed from one of environment ministers, scientists and activists to one of business leaders, financiers and monetary officials. That is bound to render the movements tactics and goals less democratic.

For environmentalists, COP26 ended in disarray, with the worlds two largest coal-burning countries, China and India, refusing to sign on to a phaseout of that dirtiest of fuels. For the finance industry, prospects were rosier. The new Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero united 450 financial institutions around a private-sector plan to move the world to so-called net-zero carbon emissions. Bank of America, BlackRock, Goldman Sachs, Vanguard and Wells Fargo have signed on. Insurers (like Lloyds), ratings agencies (like Moodys), pension funds (like the California Public Employees Retirement System) and financial-service providers (like Bloomberg) have also given their backing. They are ready to roll even if the COP activists are not.

The group is fronted by Mark Carney, a former Goldman Sachs executive and a former governor of both the Bank of Canada and the Bank of England, who is now the United Nations special envoy for climate and finance. About $130 trillion was said to be at the alliances disposal. That is serious money. It is more than the world generates in a year, and about six times the gross domestic product of the United States.

The alliances plan is vague. It involves driving upward convergence around corporate and financial institution net-zero transition plans and using financial levers to impose carbon-neutral rules on economic actors. The upshot: The alliance wouldnt disburse the funds on climate projects. It would direct how those funds could be invested, favoring behaviors the finance industry deemed virtuous and freezing out those it deemed not. This would be an extraordinary concentration of political power in bankers hands exactly the place where prudence might counsel us to fear power most.

We cant get to net zero by flipping a green switch, Mr. Carney announced late last month. We need to rewire our entire economies. That is a euphemistic way of describing the sought-after energy transition, which would inevitably mean enormous expense, widespread disruption and a reassignment of many property claims. The question is whether financiers as opposed to, say, scientists or voters ought to be trusted to do the rewiring. The alliance seems to want to resolve that question before the wider public even realizes that it has been asked.

A case can be made that money managers have a certain legitimacy in leading any international effort to save the planet. It is the same legitimacy that such politically active celebrities as Charlize Theron and Bono and Sean Penn have. Their power isnt democratic but it somehow feels like it is. Youve voted for those stars by buying their products.

A banker, too, is someone to whom you have yielded a part of your dreaming self. You have handed him control of your savings. And fighting climate change requires predicting the future or at least making reasonable assumptions about it. That is just what you trust your investment adviser to do, at least with that narrow part of your future that is measured by the Dow Jones industrial average. What is more, if rewiring the world is really our goal, then it will take resources of the sort that only the financial system controls. Theres no budget of any country that can do what we need to do, said John Kerry, the Biden administrations climate envoy, at an early meeting of Glasgow Financial Alliance in April.

But that is the problem. Governments lack the money to do these things because they lack the legitimacy. The money that Mr. Kerry proposes using for a climate-rescue program has not been levied in taxes for that purpose. It is peoples personal property, their private investments, their life savings. People might be willing to surrender it for the noble purpose of saving the planet, but in a democracy the government must first ask their permission. Until they assent, it is not the governments money.

In most cases, it is not the banks money either. Mr. Carney, for one, seems to have lost sight of that. We have all the money needed, he said at the summit. No. Bankers have the money in the sense of holding it, but not in the sense of being free to do what they will with it. A banker merely stands at one of the choke points through which other peoples money passes. In most cases he is permitted to stand there only so long as he is selfless. He is a fiduciary. He is bound by law and custom to protect only the interest of the people whose money he is holding. He cannot wield that money in his own interest whether financial or ideological.

Bankers have always chafed at these traditions. Certain investment consultants in the alliance forthrightly declare that shilly-shallying while the world overheats is itself a violation of fiduciary responsibilities. The Biden administration shares this view. Earlier this fall, the Labor Department drafted a rules change in the Employee Retirement Income Security Act that would require fiduciaries to consider environmental, social and governance factors as well as the interest of the depositor.

Banks have a hard time ignoring traditional fiduciary rules as long as they have competitors who obey them because, in theory at least, depositors will flock to other banks that are focused more single-mindedly on returns. A project such as the Glasgow Financial Alliance therefore comes with the expectation of government protection, protection from competition. At the April meeting of the alliance, the Morgan Stanley managing director Thomas Nides said, This is a time for financial institutions not to compete but to work together. Deciding whether this is a good idea depends on whether you believe financial institutions, acting in concert, are more likely to promote decarbonization or protect their own prerogatives.

At Glasgow a few self-nominated representatives from a very rich industry laid claim to a special role in shaping the human future. In doing so, they opened a rift. Climate activists were skeptical, noting that many alliance members continue to be involved in financing oil extraction. The bankers of the alliance, on the other hand, seem to believe society is ready to follow their lead. Voters, not bankers, should be the judge of that.

Originally posted here:
Opinion | Bankers Took Over the Climate Change Summit. Thats Bad For Democracy. - The New York Times

The many instances of leaders and members of the ruling party in Kerala using their clout to suppress rights, deny justice and protect wrongdoers, as in the Thiruvananthapuram adoption row and the recent Aluva domestic violence death, are symptomatic of an ugly political culture. From the very beginning, the Communist governments in the state were accused of promoting cell rule, where the party system overshadowed the official state machinery. The party functionaries at different levels were placed on the top and rules of a democratic government were bent to suit their preferences.

After the fall of the Soviet Union, fringe Communist groups that revolted against mainstream parties had warned about the danger of party functionaries gaining the upper hand in a democratic set-up. The mismatch between the basic structure of Communist parties and the democratic system has often been pointed out. The structure, envisaged at a time when the parties were operating from underground and existed as a resistance force, is no longer relevant. This structure seldom allows democratic principles to thrive as everything revolves around the partys interests.

The CPM leadership, too, is aware of the reality that unchecked interference of the party in day-to-day functioning of the government would invite a West Bengal-like situation. But all the sincere efforts to curtail the clout of party functionaries have come to naught. Officials who resisted party interference are either intimidated or tortured and democratic institutions are made silent witnesses. Rules are liberally flouted to dole out favours to the kith and kin of leaders. Anything that stands in the way of the partys wish is mercilessly steamrolled.

And the partymen believe that the impressive victory in the Assembly polls is a licence to do all this. The party machinery that has become a parallel government will oppose any attempt to disturb the status quo. The party secretaries at different levels are more powerful than the elected representatives or even ministers. But CM Pinarayi Vijayan, who is also a member of the party Politburo, can bring in lasting changes if he wishes. He is the unquestioned leader in the party and the government. He can show the party bureaucrats their place and preserve the democratic spirit in governance. Whether he wants such a change is the million-dollar question.

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A party at odds with principles of democracy - The New Indian Express

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Our annual Thanksgiving dinner is a big deal at our house. This year, there are three generations of McFarlands at the table, ranging in age from 80 years to 80 days.

After the feast and before the pies, we always go around the table asking everyone what theyre most thankful for this year.

WALL STREET JOURNAL REFUSES TO BOW TO LEFT'S DEMANDS TO CANCEL THANKSGIVING EDITORIALS: WE WONT BEND'

This year Im going to venture into political waterswhich is usually a topic best avoided at family gatheringsand declare my thanks for democracy, and for the triumph of the common sense of ordinary Americans.

U.S. President Joe Biden listens to first lady Jill Biden speak during a Thanksgiving event with U.S. service members and military families at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, U.S., November 22, 2021. REUTERS/Leah Millis

We went into COVID lockdown nearly two years ago and have emerged to find a greatly changed America. "Wokeism" has taken over our schools, churches, media and corporations. Teachers indoctrinate children with racial hatred and anti-Americanism. Freedom of speech has been banned from college dorms and faculty lounges. Our most renowned media outlets routinely and proudly censor any voices criticizing the radical lefts socialist agenda.

Some of our once great cities are defunding police departments. Our senior military officials used to focus on defeating Americas foreign adversaries; now theyre obsessed with which pronouns to use in training manuals. Anyone criticizing the new "Woke America" is attacked by social media mobs and by the "cancel culture."

U.S. President Joe Biden pardons the national Thanksgiving turkey, Peanut Butter, as Phil Seger, chairman of the National Turkey Federation, and Andrea Welp, a turkey grower from Indiana, stand by during the 74th National Thanksgiving Turkey Presentation in the Rose Garden at the White House in Washington, U.S., November 19, 2021. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

Just a few years ago, America was the gold standard for freedom and individual liberty. Now were the capital of group think.

Almost all of us have in recent months had conversations with friends who look around the room and whisper fearfully, "What has happened to America?" The silent majority of Americans realize were going in a very bad directionwe're just not sure what to do about it.

But Ive detected a shift in the last few weeks. People around the country have finally had enough and are starting to fight back. The silent majority has found its voice. We're willing to stand up the socialist, totalitarian, racist, anti-American agenda.

The battlegrounds are not in Washington, theyre in local school boards, town halls, and in state capitols. The warriors are not in our military nor the FBI. Theyre the ordinary citizens who live ordinary lives, but who are filled with extraordinary courage that inspire others in different communities to stand up for their rights.

Who are these patriots willing to stand up to defend democracy, individual rights, and American history and culture?

Theyre the judge, defense attorneys, and jurors in Kenosha, Wisconsin, who ensured Kyle Rittenhouse received a fair trialdespite death threats to the judge, defense attorneys, and jurists.

Theyre people like businessman turned candidate Glenn Youngkin, who won an historic victory in Virginia by focusing on what voters care abouttheir kids education and their communities. Or the truck driver who decided to challenge one of the most entrenched politicians in New Jersey and won.

Theyre government employees like Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz who warned the FBI and the Department of Justice have become too politicized. Many see them as pursuing a two-tiered system of justiceone for political allies and another for political opponents.

Or the Justice Department whistleblower who provided evidence that the Attorney General is using the Patriot Actoriginally designed to protect Americans from foreign terroristsagainst average parents around the country who dare protest what their kids are being taught in school.

These examples are starting to pile up as more and more people around the country have decided theyve had enough of socialism, of cancel culture, of reverse-racist agendas, and of anti-Americanism.

This changed attitude is best reflected in recent polls and ratings. Support for President Joe Biden and the socialist agenda is collapsing. Left-wing media outlets like CNN, MSNBC, New York Times, and Washington Post are hemorrhaging audiences.

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Americans, as a people, are slow to rile up. Were generally focused on our families, friends, neighborhoods, and our jobs. We go to our kids soccer gamesnot school board meetings. We drive to work, not to political protests.

Turkeys are displayed for sale at a Jewel-Osco grocery store ahead of Thanksgiving, in Chicago, Illinois, U.S. November 18, 2021. REUTERS/Christopher Walljasper

But push us far enough, and we will respond. Thats what is happening all over America today. Its parent protests at school district meetings. Its whistleblowers revealing government abuse of power. Its veterans, businessmen, and even truck drivers who are stepping up to run for political office.

It's democracy in action.

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Its why Im thankful for democracy. Our Founding Fathers understood the nature of government is always to expand its power and privilege. They took steps to guard against mob rule and a dictatorship of interest groups.

Im grateful they also had the wisdom to give the average, commonplace, ordinary Americans the power to stop them.

This Thanksgiving, its God bless Americaand our fellow Americans.

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This Thanksgiving, I'm thankful for democracy and the common sense of ordinary Americans - Fox News

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.

AMY GOODMAN: Today, a Democracy Now! special celebrating 25 years on the air. On February 19th, 1996, on the eve of the New Hampshire presidential primary, Democracy Now! aired for the first time on nine community radio stations.

AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now! From Pacifica Radio, Im Amy Goodman in Washington. Today on Democracy Now!, Live Free or Die, a look at the political landscape in New Hampshire, where the Republican Revolution has taken its toll.

ARNIE ARNESEN: If you want a taste of the country after the revolution, you might as well visit New Hampshire today, because were the state that has the most regressive taxes in the country, that doesnt have mandatory kindergarten, that doesnt invest in its infrastructure.

AMY GOODMAN: Also, the politics of race in the Granite State, and Money Talks: Who are the Millionaires Having Their Way in Washington?

JEFFREY KLEIN: You need to go up to Bob Dole, now that hes on the corporate welfare line, and say, you know, OK, thats a great thats great that youve taken up this plank. Whose corporate jet did you fly up here on? Dwayne Andreas, the number three on the Mother Jones list, or Carl Lindner, the number four on the Mother Jones list? You need to relentlessly expose them.

AMY GOODMAN: All coming up on Democracy Now! Today is Presidents Day, and tomorrow is the New Hampshire primary. Welcome to the maiden voyage of Democracy Now!, Pacificas daily national election show. Greetings to our audiences in California, Texas, New York, Pennsylvania, Washington, D.C., Washington state, Kansas City and Colorado. In this election year, were embarking on a nine-month journey through the country and hope to pick up community radio stations in many more states as we go, as we give voice to the grassroots.

AMY GOODMAN: And that nine-month project, well, began a quarter of a century ago. Thats right. Democracy Now! went on the air on nine community radio stations in 1996. It now airs in over 1,500 TV and radio stations around the globe and online at democracynow.org.

In 1998, Democracy Now! documented Chevrons role in the killing of two protesters who occupied a Chevron-owned oil platform in the oil-rich Niger Delta in Nigeria. Democracy Now!'s Jeremy Scahill and I traveled to the Niger Delta to investigate and produced this special documentary, Drilling and Killing: Chevron and Nigeria's Oil Dictatorship. This is an excerpt.

AMY GOODMAN: Until now, Chevron has claimed that its only action against the occupation was to call the federal authorities and tell them what was happening. But in a startling admission in a three-hour interview with Democracy Now!, Chevron spokesperson Sola Omole acknowledged that Chevron did much more. He admitted that Chevron actually flew in the soldiers who did the killing. And he further admitted that those men were from the notorious Nigerian navy.

SOLA OMOLE: I guess

AMY GOODMAN: Who took them in?

SOLA OMOLE: Whats that?

AMY GOODMAN: Who took them in?

SOLA OMOLE: Who took them in?

AMY GOODMAN: On Thursday morning, the Mobile Police, the navy?

SOLA OMOLE: We did. We did. We did. We, Chevron, did. We took them there.

AMY GOODMAN: By how?

SOLA OMOLE: Helicopters. Yes, we took them in.

AMY GOODMAN: Who authorized the call for the military to come in?

SOLA OMOLE: Chevrons management.

JEREMY SCAHILL: And so, here we have, on May 28th, 1998, Chevron flying in the Nigerian navy and the Mobile Police to confront a group of villagers who thought they were in the midst of a negotiation with the oil giant, which brings us to another admission by Chevron spokesperson Sola Omole. Again, listen carefully.

AMY GOODMAN: Were any of the youths armed?

SOLA OMOLE: I dont know. I dont know. I dont know. So I cannot say that they came armed with there was talk about local charms and all that, but thats neither here nor there.

AMY GOODMAN: So, you dont think that they came onto the boat armed, youre saying?

SOLA OMOLE: No. No.

AMY GOODMAN: The youths.

SOLA OMOLE: Mm-hmm.

ORONTO DOUGLAS: It is very clear that Chevron, just like Shell, uses the military to protect its oil activities. They drill. And they kill.

JEREMY SCAHILL: Again, environmentalist Oronto Douglas.

ORONTO DOUGLAS: They are shooting our people for just demanding for their right.

AMY GOODMAN: In 1999, Democracy Now! was in the streets of Seattle when tens of thousands of activists gathered to shut down a ministerial meeting of the World Trade Organization. In Seattle, we we spoke with Indian scientist and activist Vandana Shiva and Lori Wallach of Public Citizen.

LORI WALLACH: The WTO constrains every country government about literally the level of food safety it can provide its public, or whether or not poor farmers can have access to seeds, whether or not workers can be safe from asbestos.

VANDANA SHIVA: Actually, the secrecy through which WTO was born is apparent in the fact that most parliaments had no idea what was the content of this treaty til months after it had been ratified and signed in Marrakech. The WTO wrote the rules. It sits in judgment about implementation of those rules, and it writes the inquisition.

AMY GOODMAN: You are listening to Pacifica Radios Democracy Now!, broadcasting live from Seattle.

AMY GOODMAN: Democracy Now! grew into a daily television show in 2001, but one of our first broadcasts took place in August 2000 at the Republican National Convention in Philadelphia.

AMY GOODMAN: From Pacifica Radio, this is Democracy Now! Breaking with Convention: Power, Protest and the Presidency. George Bush accepts the Republican nomination for president. Well get reaction from Barbara Gonzalez and Jello Biafra. Also, a look at the conduct of the Philadelphia police this week and a tour through the Independent Media Center. All that and more, coming up on Pacifica Radios Democracy Now!

You are listening to Pacifica Radios Democracy Now!, broadcasting on community radio stations around the country, on public access TV stations around the country, on the internet, both live-streaming and videocasting at http://www.democracynow.org, in an unprecedented community-media collaboration. Im Amy Goodman, here with Juan Gonzlez, as we continue our reaction to the nomination speech of the acceptance speech of George W. Bush for nomination by the Republican Party as their presidential candidate. Juan?

JUAN GONZLEZ: Yes, as I said, an amazing speech by Bush in you know, he actually attempted, basically, to portray himself as a caring, sensitive, compassionate conservative. But the reality of the message that he was bringing, of increased military spending, of privatization of Social of portions of Social Security accounts, of charter schools that would help to begin to tear apart the public school system rather than raise the level of the public school system throughout, I think was one that was clearly, clearly at the right fringe of American politics today.

AMY GOODMAN: On Election Day in 2000, then-President Bill Clinton called Pacifica radio station WBAI in an attempt to get out the vote for Hillary for Senate and Al Gore for president. While he may have intended to spend about two minutes on the phone, WBAI host Gonzalo Aburto and I kept him on the line for about half an hour, asking him about topics that werent being discussed in the presidential race.

AMY GOODMAN: Mr. President, are you there?

PRESIDENT BILL CLINTON: I am. Can you hear me?

AMY GOODMAN: Yes, we can.

GONZALO ABURTO: Yeah.

AMY GOODMAN: Youre calling radio stations to tell people to get out and vote. What do you say to people who feel that the two parties are bought by corporations and that they are at this point feel that their vote doesnt make a difference?

PRESIDENT BILL CLINTON: Theres not a shred of evidence to support that.

AMY GOODMAN: President Clinton, U.N. figures show that up to 5,000 children a month die in Iraq because of the sanctions against Iraq.

PRESIDENT BILL CLINTON: Thats not true. Thats not true. And thats not what they show.

AMY GOODMAN: The past two U.N. heads of the program in Iraq have quit, calling the U.S. policy U.S.-U.N. policy genocidal. What is your response to that?

PRESIDENT BILL CLINTON: Theyre wrong. They think that we should reward Saddam Hussein says, Im going to starve my kids unless you let me buy nuclear weapons, chemical weapons and biological weapons. If you let me do everything I want to do, so I can get in a position to kill and intimidate people again, then Ill stop starving my kids. And so, were supposed to assume responsibility for his misconduct. Thats just not right.

AMY GOODMAN: President Clinton, since its rare to get you on the phone, let me ask you another question. And that is: What is your position on granting Leonard Peltier, the Native American activist, executive clemency?

PRESIDENT BILL CLINTON: Well, I dont I dont have a position I can announce yet. I think if I believe there is a new application for him in there. And when I have time, after the election is over, Im going to review all the remaining executive clemency applications and, you know, see what the merits dictate. I will try to do what I think the right thing to do is based on the evidence.

AMY GOODMAN: Many people say that Ralph Nader is at the high percentage point he is in the polls because youve been responsible for taking the Democratic Party to the right.

PRESIDENT BILL CLINTON: What is the measure of taking the Democratic Party to the right? That we cut the welfare rolls in half? That poverty is at a 20-year low? That child poverty has been cut by a third in our administration? That the schools in this country, that the test scores among since weve required all the schools to have basic standards, test scores among African Americans and other minorities have gone up steadily? Now, what

AMY GOODMAN: Can I say what some people

PRESIDENT BILL CLINTON: Let me just finish.

AMY GOODMAN: Let me just say

PRESIDENT BILL CLINTON: Let me now, wait a minute. You started this, and every question youve asked has been hostile and combative. So you listen to my answer, will you do that?

AMY GOODMAN: Theyve been critical questions.

PRESIDENT BILL CLINTON: Now, you just listen to me. You ask the questions, and Im going to answer. You have asked questions in a hostile, combative and even disrespectful tone, but I and you have never been able to combat the facts I have given you. Now, you listen to this.

AMY GOODMAN: That was President Clinton in a surprise call to WBAI on Election Day 2000. The White House would later call me and say they were thinking of banning me from the White House. I said, But he called me. I didnt call him.

As for Native American leader Leonard Peltier, he remains in prison to this day. I had a chance to speak to Leonard on the phone from prison in Florida in 2012 during the Obama administration.

AMY GOODMAN: Leonard, this is Amy Goodman from Democracy Now! I was

LEONARD PELTIER: Oh, hi, Amy. How are you?

AMY GOODMAN: Hi. Im good. I was wondering if you have a message for President Obama?

LEONARD PELTIER: I just hope he can, you know, stop the wars that are going on in this world, and stop getting killing all those people getting killed, and, you know, give the Black Hills back to my people, and turn me loose.

AMY GOODMAN: Can you share with people at the news conference and with President Obama your case for why you should be your sentence should be commuted, why you want clemency?

LEONARD PELTIER: Well, I never got a fair trial, for one. They wouldnt allow me to put up a defense, and manufactured evidence, manufactured witnesses, tortured witnesses. You know, the list is just goes on. So I think Im a very good candidate for after 37 years, for clemency or house arrest, at least.

AMY GOODMAN: That was Leonard Peltier. One guest whos appeared multiple times on Democracy Now! over the years is the imprisoned former Black Panther and journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal.

AMY GOODMAN: Were going to interrupt the broadcast because right now we have just gotten a call from Mumia Abu-Jamal from prison in Pennsylvania. Mumia Abu-Jamal is speaking to us for the first time no longer on death row.

OPERATOR: This call is from the State Correctional Institution at Mahanoy and is subject to monitoring and recording.

MUMIA ABU-JAMAL: Youve probably heard me refer to life as slow death row. It sounds a little dramatic, but it is really more truth to it than hyperbole. And thats because, you know, in Pennsylvania, it has the highest population, or one of the highest populations, in the state, of lifers in fact, juveniles with life sentences. And in Pennsylvania, theres no gradation: You know, all lifers are lifers, and thats for their whole life. Its slow death row, to be sure.

And when you see, as Ive seen, going to chow or going to a meal and seeing what I call the million man wheelchair march, it makes an impact on you. You know, you look up in the morning, and there are 30 or 40 guys going through the handicap line, and theyre in wheelchairs. And although some are young, most are quite old. Life means life in Pennsylvania.

AMY GOODMAN: The words of Mumia Abu-Jamal. After a break, well continue our look back at the past 25 years of Democracy Now!

[break]

AMY GOODMAN: Lila Downs, performing in our Democracy Now! studio.

On the evening of December 7th thats Tuesday at 8 p.m. Lila Downs will join Noam Chomsky, Angela Davis, Arundhati Roy, Winona LaDuke and others as we celebrate online 25 years of Democracy Now! We hope youll join us. Visit democracynow.org for details.

This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org. Im Amy Goodman, as we return to our look back at excerpts of Democracy Now! over the past quarter of a century. On the morning of September 11th, 2001, Democracy Now! was on the air when the World Trade Center was attacked. Broadcasting on radio for over six hours, Democracy Now! covered the attacks just blocks from ground zero.

AMY GOODMAN: The latest news we have is that there have been widespread attacks that include at least three commercial jet crashes we now believe perhaps four three commercial jet crashes into significant buildings. In the first attack, a plane hit the North Tower of the World Trade Center in Manhattan shortly before 9:00, followed by another plane into the second tower about 20 minutes later. Both towers later collapsed. About an hour later, a plane crashed into the Pentagon, part of which later collapsed.

AMY GOODMAN: Democracy Now! closely followed the fallout from the 9/11 attacks, both at home and abroad. In December of 2001, Masuda Sultan, an Afghan American woman, reported on Democracy Now! from Afghanistan about a U.S. air raid that killed 19 members of her family.

MASUDA SULTAN: They described the scene where they were running with their kids in their arms, dodging bullets left and right, while they had while they saw balls of fire falling down to the earth. They were just women and children running for their lives, being shot at by a helicopter hovering over their home. And these people were not Taliban supporters. They werent al-Qaeda fighters. They were simple Afghans, trying to stay safe in their own country.

AMY GOODMAN: After Masuda Sultan came back to New York, she came on Democracy Now! along with Rita Lasar, who lost her brother, Abe Zelmanowitz, at the World Trade Center.

RITA LASAR: I live on the 15th floor and ran to my neighbors house, and she has a clear view of downtown Manhattan. And I looked out her window and saw the second plane hit the second building. And it dawned on me: My brother works there.

I went down to the hospitals to see if his name was on a list. And then I realized he had died. And because he had stayed behind to stay with his quadriplegic brother Im sorry, friend, who couldnt get out, although he was on the 27th floor and he could have saved himself, he died.

And then President Bush mentioned him in the National Cathedral speech and cited him as being a hero. And I realized that my government was going to use my brother as justification for killing other people, and that had a tremendous impact on me. I didnt want that to happen, not in my brothers name.

MASUDA SULTAN: First of all, I want to express my condolences to Rita. I did before, but I think your brother is a hero, and youre a hero for continuing his legacy. And its amazing to me that someone whos lost so much isnt as revenge-hungry as some of the other people that seem to want to, you know, go start bombing whoever, wherever.

AMY GOODMAN: Masuda Sultan and Rita Lasar in our firehouse studio at Downtown Community Television, DCTV. Rita died in 2017.

As we continue our Democracy Now! journey through the decades, we turn to May 20th, 2002, when East Timor became an independent country after decades of occupation by Indonesia. I had been reporting on the East Timorese independence movement for years. On November 12th, 1991, journalist Allan Nairn and I were there when Indonesian troops armed with U.S. M16s opened fire on thousands of unarmed East Timorese civilians who had gathered at the Santa Cruz cemetery.

JOS RAMOS-HORTA: I lost one sister and two brothers.

EAST TIMORESE WOMAN: It was 10 days before I was to give birth. The army was shooting people, and they would die at our feet, but you couldnt stop to help them.

JOS RAMOS-HORTA: I know families that were totally wiped out.

EAST TIMORESE MAN: Two American newsmen badly beaten: Mr. Allan Nairn and Miss Amy Goodman.

AMY GOODMAN: The Indonesian army converged in two places.

ALLAN NAIRN: Hundreds and hundreds of troops coming straight at the Timorese.

AMY GOODMAN: When they came, they opened fire on the people.

PRESIDENT GEORGE H.W. BUSH: We pride ourselves, and I think properly so, in standing up for human rights.

AMY GOODMAN: At least 271 Timorese were killed that day. The Indonesian military fractured Allan Nairns skull. More than a decade later, East Timor became an independent country. Allan Nairn and I returned to the capital Dili for the celebration. Allan questioned former President Bill Clinton.

ALLAN NAIRN: In 1999, in April, the Indonesian military and their militias massacred 50 people in the rectory in Liqui. They hacked them with machetes. Two days later, Admiral Blair, the commander for the Pacific, your commander, met with General Wiranto, the Indonesian commander. He offered to help him in lobbying the U.S. Congress to get full U.S. military training restored. He made no mention of the Liqui massacre. During that same period, the Indonesian militias rampaged here in downtown Dili. They attacked the house of Manuel Carrascalo. They massacred the refugees there. Yet you continued for months with aid to the Indonesian military. Why?

BILL CLINTON: Whats your question, sir?

ALLAN NAIRN: Why did you continue with aid to the Indonesian military if they were killing civilians?

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Democracy Now! at 25: Celebrating a Quarter-Century of Independent News on the Frontlines - Democracy Now!