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This week on Uprising:

* Political Prisoner Sami Al Arian Remains in Custody
* Empire Notes on the fight over Iraq appropriations – Part 2
* Prominent Latino Organizations Silent on Alberto Gonzales
* Black Agenda Report on how banks steal black children’s futures
* Supreme Court’s Historic Decision Gives EPA Authority to Regulate Greenhouse Gases
* Monbiot: Biofuels Threaten Food Supplies and Forests, Worsen Global Warming

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Political Prisoner Sami Al Arian Remains in Custody

GUEST: Laila Al Arian, Sami Al Arian’s daughter

A former Computer Science professor at the University of South Florida been imprisoned since February 2003 on charges of providing material support to a group called Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Dr. Sami Al Arian was originally scheduled to be released and deported this month. But a judge ruled to extend al-Arian’s term for an additional eighteen months following his refusal to testify before a grand jury in Virginia investigating Palestinian charities. The contempt ruling was recently upheld by the 4th U.S. Circuit Court which rejected al-Arian’s argument that his refusal was within the terms of his 2003 plea bargain. Dr. Al Arian had been on a 2 month hunger strike to protest the extension of his prison term during which he lost over 50 pounds and was in dangerous health. He decided to end his hunger strike last week at the urging of his family. Dr. al-Arian had been under government surveillance for years. After his 2003 arrest, a 2005 trial failed to convict him on any counts. The government was determined to re-prosecute him and Dr. Al-Arian decided to enter a plea bargain.

For more information, visit www.freesamialarian.com

Empire Notes on the fight over Iraq appropriations – Part 2

GUEST: Rahul Mahajan, author of Full Spectrum Dominance and The New Crusade

Empire Notes are weekly commentaries filed by Rahul Mahajan, author of Full Spectrum Dominance and The New Crusade. Today’s commentary is on the fight over Iraq appropriations – Part 2

Empire Notes is online at www.empirenotes.org.

Prominent Latino Organizations Silent on Alberto Gonzales

GUEST: Roberto Lovato, a frequent contributor to The Nation, and New York-based writer with New America Media, former president of the Los Angeles County Human Relations Commission.

US Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez has been in the center of a firestorm of controversy for his role in the firing of 8 US prosecutors. Members of Congress have demanded to know whether the prosecutors were fired as part of a plan to fill the jobs with political cronies, or as payback for not pursuing cases that were politically important to Republicans. Meanwhile New American Media writer, Roberto Lovato, notes that prominent Latino organizations have been silent on Alberto Gonzales. Many of these were groups that enthusiastically supported Gonzalez for his current post during his confirmation hearings.

Read Roberto’s article at http://news.newamericamedia.org/news/

Black Agenda Report on how banks steal black children’s futures

GUEST: Glen Ford is a writer and radio commentator and the Executive Editor of The Black Agenda Report

This week’s commentary is about how banks steal black children’s futures. Visit www.blackagendareport.com for more information.

Supreme Court’s Historic Decision Gives EPA Authority to Regulate Greenhouse Gases

GUEST: Tripp Van Noppen, Vice President of Litigation at Earth Justice

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled recently that the Clean Air Act gives the federal Environmental Protection Agency the authority to regulate greenhouse gases. In a sharply divided vote of 5-4, the high court decided against the EPA’s assertion that it had no mandate to regulate greenhouse gas emissions. The ruling was a rebuke of the Bush Administration, which has consistently argued against any regulation of industries or established standards on motor vehicle emissions. The EPA could still refuse to act on greenhouse gas pollutants, but in order to do so it would have to publicly determine that greenhouse gases are not harmful to public health and welfare. President Bush reacted to the high court’s decision by stating that, “anything that happens cannot hurt economic growth,” and that whatever steps taken, “must be in concert with what happens internationally.” Environmentalists hailed this past Monday’s Supreme Court decision as a watershed victory in one of the most critical environmental cases in years.

For more information, visit www.earthjustice.org.

Monbiot: Biofuels Threaten Food Supplies and Forests, Worsen Global Warming

GUEST: George Monbiot, columnist for the Guardian Newspaper in Britain, author of several books including, “The Age of Consent: a manifesto for a new world order”

The Bush administration wants to cut gasoline consumption by 20 percent over the next 10 years and instead raise the production of alternative fuels, including bio-fuels like ethanol, to 35 billion gallons a year by 2017. That goal has spiked the demand worldwide for corn, the main source of ethanol in the United States. The definition of bio-fuel is any fuel that is derived from biomass — that is recently living organisms or their metabolic byproducts. It is a renewable energy source, unlike other natural resources such as petroleum, coal, and nuclear fuels. Bio-fuel includes ethanol from corn; bio-diesel from fats or oils such as soy-bean oil; and unrefined vegetable oil, such as waste vegetable oil discarded from restaurants. Many environmentalists have been championing the use of bio-fuels to combat global warming and pollution, and it seems as though some powerful nations such as the US, Britain, and China are finally warming up to the idea. But my guest, George Monbiot, has criticized the move toward bio-fuels because, in his words, “oil produced from plants sets up competition for food between cars and people. People – and the environment – will lose.”

Read George Monbiot’s article A Lethal Solution, on his website: http://www.monbiot.com/archives/2007/03/27/a-lethal-solution/

Sonali’s Subversive Thought for the Day

“The sinister idea of converting food into combustible was definitively established as the economic line of the foreign policy of the United States. Apply this recipe to the countries of the Third World and you will see how many people among the hungry masses of our planet will no longer consume corn… Or even worse: by offering financing to poor countries to produce ethanol from corn or any other kind of food no tree will be left to defend humanity from climate change.” – Fidel Castro, quoted from his first editorial after recovering from his 2006 surgery.