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GRITtv Live at 11:30 Eastern: Human Rights at Home

2008-11-17T10:06:01Z

Human rights organizations are demanding President elect Obama and his new administration seize this opportunity to reverse the damage that has been done around the world and at home. After eight years of an administration that disregarded human rights - from Hurricane Katrina, a pre-emptive war in Iraq, to torture, secret and unlawful detentions, wire tapping - what is our hope for human rights in this country?

Today on GRITtv we are joined by Catherine Powell, the author of Human Rights at Home: A Domestic Policy Blueprint for the New Administration and an associate professor of Law at Fordham Law School, Ajamu Baraka a leading human rights activist and the Executive Director of the US Human Rights Network, and former political prisoner Laura Whitehorn.

*Post your comments and questions at GRITtv.org.

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Frost over the world - Vaclav Havel - 26 Sep 08

2008-10-31T15:31:31Z

Sir David speaks to Vaclav Havel, the former president of the Czech Republic, and one of the great icons of the Cold War.

In November 1989, Vaclav Havel, a dissident playwright, led a 10-day Velvet Revolution that overturned four decades of communism in Czechoslovakia.

A man who had spent five years in prison was suddenly propelled into political office.

For the next 13 years, Vaclav Havel served as President of Czechoslovakia and then the Czech Republic.

He took the Czech Republic into Nato and also negotiated the Republic's entry into the European Union. Now retired, Havel has written his first play in 19 years. The play, Leaving, is about a politician's painful adjustment to a new life after leaving politics.

Vaclav Havel tells Sir David that Russia today is "more dangerous" than the old communist regime and explains why accepting the presidency in December 1989 was the biggest decision of his life.

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Riz Khan - Nato secretary-general - 25 Sep 08 - Part 2

2008-10-31T09:31:26Z

Riz speaks to the Nato secretary-general, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, on the Russia-Georgia conflict, the ongoing violence in Afghanistan as well as the way forward for a more efficient and effective Nato.

There has been a war of the words at the United Nations General Assembly after Ukraine rejected Russian pressure to prevent their entry into Nato on Wednesday, September 24, 200.

Without specifically naming Russia, Viktor Yushchenko, the Ukrainian president, condemned "all acts of aggression and the use of force that occurred in the region."

Russia is opposed to Nato entry for both Georgia and Ukraine, saying that NATO expansion and its support of a planned US anti-missile system in the Czech Republic and Poland is a "strategic error."

Relations between NATO and Russia sunk to their lowest point since the end of the Cold War after the recent conflict between Moscow and Tbilisi over Georgia's breakaway republic of South Ossetia.

As well as the fallout from the deteriorating relations Nato's secretary-general has also called for no interference in the way affairs are handled by the world body in Afghanistan.

Nato troops have been fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan for almost seven years following the September 11 2001 terror attacks on the United States.

Seven years later the country is seeing a resurgence of violence, even as the US and Nato have poured in thousands of new troops.

Now, against the backdrop of a world financial crisis, Nato is under pressure to provide $200 billion to fund doubling the size of the Afghan national army over the next five years.

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Riz Khan - Nato secretary-general - 25 Sep 08 - Part 1

2008-10-31T09:31:26Z

There has been a war of the words at the United Nations General Assembly after Ukraine rejected Russian pressure to prevent their entry into Nato on Wednesday, September 24, 200.

Without specifically naming Russia, Viktor Yushchenko, the Ukrainian president, condemned "all acts of aggression and the use of force that occurred in the region."

As well as the fallout from the deteriorating relations Nato's secretary-general has also called for no interference in the way affairs are handled by the world body in Afghanistan.

Nato troops have been fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan for almost seven years following the September 11 2001 terror attacks on the United States.

Seven years later the country is seeing a resurgence of violence, even as the US and Nato have poured in thousands of new troops.

Now, against the backdrop of a world financial crisis, Nato is under pressure to provide $200 billion to fund doubling the size of the Afghan national army over the next five years.

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Re: Germany Vs Belgium 2-0 All Goals

2008-10-30T03:30:45Z

Video Cam Direct Upload

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John McCain: Town Hall Meeting 07/22/08

2008-10-28T09:30:28Z

John McCain
Town Hall
Rochester, NH - 07/22/08

TRANSCRIPT:
QUESTIONER: Russia, question mark?

MCCAIN: First of all, Mitt has been a tremendous help to my campaign. He has been on television, he does a better job for me than he did for himself. [...] Our party is united and we have a lot of energizing work to do. But we are united.

I'm very concerned about Russia. Very concerned that just recently because the Czechs agreed with us on a missile defense system, that they cut the gas supplies, the oil supplies to the Republic of Czechoslovakia. Remember, excuse me, Czech Republic. I used to call it, [laughs]. The Czech Republic, as you know is been a very staunch and aligning friend. And as you know, the Czech Republic and Slovakia split years ago, from time to time, some of us mistake and say Czechoslovakia. Where the fact is it's the Czech Republic.

And so, they are staunch allies. And so the questions in response to their agreement on missile defense, the Czech's have had their oil supplies reduced. And that's not the way we expect Russia to behave. There are plenty of enormous pressures on Georgia. They have not agreed with us and helped us in trying to restrain the Iranian progress towards the acquisition of nuclear weapons.

So the Russian behavior is more and more autocratic. And the internal stifling of dissent is of great concern. And by the way, our friends the Czech's have been our friends for a long time. They were behind the Iron Curtain, as you know. And both the Czech Republic and Slovakia have been good friends of ours since they split. So we need to make sure that we can help them. In particularly, point out that the Russian behavior, basically blackmailing their neighbors is not something that's acceptable in the world today.

So I worry about Russia. I don't think there's going to be a return to Cold War, that's not what I'm talking about. But Russian behavior becomes less and less in the interest of us throughout the world, frankly, then we had hoped and anticipated when the Berlin Wall came down.

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