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Pinochet Under House Arrest for Tax Evasion
GUEST: Saul Landau, Professor at Cal Poly Pomona, and a fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies, author of “Assassination on Embassy Row”

Former Chilean dictator General Augusto Pinochet has managed to avoid prosecution for the crimes of his military government’s seventeen year reign from 1973 to 1990. A Spanish Judge first issued an international arrest warrant for Pinochet in 1998. Pinochet’s lawyers have constantly argued that the aging former dictator is unfit to stand trial, claiming that he suffers from dementia. However, earlier this month doctors reversed that assessment, declaring him in good enough health. Last September, it was also ruled that Pinochet could be stripped of his presidential immunity in the on-going case of Operation Colombo. This was the case where 119 members of the Revolutionary Leftist Movement or MIR were disappeared and later found dead in neighboring Latin American countries. Last Monday Pinochet was ordered by Judge Victor Montiglio to meet face to face with his former Secret Police Chief Manuel Contreras. Both men blame each other for human rights abuses. Perhaps now legal action may finally be brought against Pinochet for crimes committed during his dictatorship. But in breaking news last week, Pinochet was indicted and put under house arrest on charges of tax evasion and corruption related to his multimillion-dollar overseas accounts.

Tribute to Vine Deloria Jr
GUESTS: Larry Smith, co-host of American Indian Airwaves from the Lumbee nation, Henrietta Mann, Cheyanne Nation, George E. Tinker, Osage nation.

Vine Deloria Jr, a prominent Native American activist and best-selling author died last Sunday at the age of 72 in Colorado. Born in 1933 and raised in South Dakota, Deloria served in the Marines in the 1950’s, earned a Master’s degree from the Lutheran School of Theology in Chicago, and become a professor of History at the University of Colorado. His activist career raised his profile internationally with books like, “Custer Died for Your Sins: An Indian Manifesto,” in 1969. He also established the Institute for the Development of Indian Law, and initiated a lawsuit against the use of the Washington Redskins NFL football team’s name and logo. A prolific author of twenty books and once hailed by TIME magazine as one of the eleven great religious thinkers of the twentieth century, Vine Deloria Jr. will be greatly missed. Today we have a special tribute to him in collaboration with the program American Indian Airwaves which airs on KPFK, Pacifica radio in Los Angeles. Larry Smith is co-host of American Indian Airwaves.

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

We go now to our weekly commentary Empire Notes by Rahul Mahajan, author of Full Spectrum Dominance and The New Crusade. Today’s commentary is about is about the recent congressional vote on Iraq.

Empire Notes is online at www.empirenotes.org.

Afro-Colombian Communities Face Displacement
GUEST: Luz Marina Becerra, Secretary General of AFRODES (Organization of Displaced Afro-Colombians), Angela Thielen-Martin, Spanish-English interpreter

Since 2000 the US has poured more than $4 billion dollars in a so-called war on drugs in Colombia. Plan Colombia, as it’s called, is finally being hailed a success because of sagging cocaine prices. Longer term analysis shows that prices are only a shade lower. The US has sponsored aggressive herbicide spraying of thousands of acres of crops in Colombia. Today we look at the fallout of Plan Colombia on one significant community – Afro-Colombians – who face rampant land displacement by government backed paramilitary groups. Labeled as rebel-sympathizers, they are forced off their land and struggle to survive in the cities.

Sonali’s Subversive Thought for the Day:

“Major wars create major problems for the defenders of the established order. For modern wars require the support of everyone; and so wartime propaganda idealises the humane, egalitarian, democratic character of the home society in a way that no elite or business interest has any intention of allowing actually to come about.” (Alex Carey, Taking The Risk Out Of Democracy