Talk Radio News Service bureau chief Ellen Ratner writes about the personal meaning of the landmark Supreme Court ruling on the rights of Guantanamo Bay detainees.

Click hear to read her blog.

Bureau Chief Ellen Ratner interviews Harold Sirkin on his new book “Globality: Competing with Everyone from Everywhere for Everything.” Ratner asks how the United States can compete in the current global market. Sirkin explains that the real issue for the country is making sure that it is competitive within the business sector, within the infrastructure, and within the education system. Sirkin also says that the most important thing the U.S. can do to increase its competitiveness is to recognize what is going on in the world today. (5:58)

 

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Former White House Press Secretary under George W. Bush Scott McClellan testified under oath before the House Judiciary Committee. McClellan presented the committee with his knowledge of the lead-up to the war in Iraq and the Valerie Plame leak, two topics he discusses in his book “What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington’s Culture of Deception.”

McClellan stated that he did not know if the leak of former covert CIA agent Valerie Plame was used as a way to further criticize Plame’s husband, Ambassador Joseph Wilson. In his book, McClellan says that he finds it unlikely that President Bush would have authorized Scooter Libby to leak classified information and said he cannot rule out Vice President Cheney give the authorization. Rep. Robert Wexler (D-Fla.) said that the statements made in McClellan’s book are enough to consider impeachment proceedings on Cheney.

On the Iraq War, McClellan said that counterevidence is crucial in the lead-up to a war and that the Bush White House ignored evidence that was contradictory to the administration’s goals. Though he admitted Bush never used words like “shade the truth” or “propaganda,” McClellan said that the war was presented to Americans in those manners.

McClellan explained that the purpose for writing his book was to share his experiences with the American people and to analyze how a popular governor became a polarizing president, frequently beginning his responses by reminding the committee that he discussed the answer in his book. Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas) posed questions to McClellan that challenged his motivations for writing the book, asking about the political positions of the book’s editors and inquiring on the profits McClellan will receive. After McClellan repeatedly said “Can I finish my response?” as Smith interjected with additional questions, Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) apologized to McClellan, stating that the committee’s purpose was to investigate topics discussed in the book, not to question McClellan’s character.

Bureau Chief Ellen Ratner is attending Former Press Secretary Scott McClellan’s testimony before the House Judiciary Committee. The testimony is part of an ongoing Valeria Plame CIA leak investigation. Others events the Washington bureau will covering include: Michelle Obama’s speech at the National Partnership for Women and Families, a protest lead by Mia Farrow and other activists against corporate sponsors of the Beijing Olympics who have not addressed the Darfur Crisis with China, a rally to protest Exxon ads at National Stadium, D.C.’s “Green” baseball park, and a Congressional oversight hearing on Iraq contractor misconduct and the safety of U.S. troops.

Talk Radio News Service bureau chief Ellen Ratner writes about the personal meaning of the landmark Supreme Court ruling concerning the rights of detainees at Guantanamo Bay prison.

Click here to read her blog.

I developed great sadness while making the video about the Christian Solidarity International/Talkers Magazine Trip to Southern Sudan video, and have written an extended post about it on my personal website.

Click here to visit my personal website and read my thoughts on this video.

Ellen Ratner, calling in from Dubai after leaving Southern Darfur, says the whole issue is slavery. The government of Sudan refuses to call it slavery, and instead calls the “abductees.” Slavery is illegal in Sudan, Ellen says, as there is a law passed by the British. However, there is no punishment for slavery and no mechanism to punish slave-holders. There’s been a group that brings back these “abductees,” she says, but they are being sent back with nothing- no food, supplies, or financial support. They just rely on the kindness of villagers, and the government of Khartoum has done nothing, Ellen says, to make sure that the people from the south can recovery from slavery. This may make war in the south inevitable when the vote comes in 2011 or after for independence. (1:19)

 

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Ellen Ratner, calling in from Dubai after leaving Southern Darfur, says they met with refugees and some slaves on Monday. The slaves, she says, left Northern Sudan and were returning to their homes. One refugee who had been a slave, she says, was recognized by another former slave who had the same tribal markings. This slave had been converted to Islam and had children, and the slave’s master was very upset that the children were going. Apparently the Islamic way, Ellen says, is that the woman is still held in slavery but her children are considered children of the master. The master was very upset, she says, that the government of Sudan was allowing his children to go with their mother. (1:18)

 

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On location in the South Sudan, in a very isolated place called Majom Kor, Ellen Ratner says she is is a village where people from Darfur and other areas have come back to their villages, courtesy of the United Nations. They were told stories of how the people were able to escape to the north or were taken as slaves, although there has been little international recognition that there was slavery at all. One man told them, she says, that the slaves were kept in a pen for seven days without food and water. At this point after all these years away, she says that man told her, the village needs food, clean water, and a health facility. As they were meeting with the villagers today, Ellen said, an unclothed woman came through. The villagers quickly surrounded her, Ellen said, and told her that the woman had been traumatized by rape and that she had seen so many of her relatives killed, that this was her way of coping. The villagers told her the needs that they hoped Americans would give: they had no school, no clinics, no books, no pencils, no paper, and no clean water. That is the need, Ellen says, that is so strong in Southern Sudan.
(1:40)

 

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On location in the South Sudan, in a very isolated place called Majom Kor, Ellen Ratner says it is an amazing scene. The people that left their villages and went to Darfur, Ellen says, are being dropped off to their home villages without food or much at all. They talked about their needs, she says, and how their houses were burned down, and their cattle were taken, and how they had no food and had to leave. They are being repatriated in their home communities. They talked to refugees that were coming back from Darfur, she said, and when she asked them how many of them had a relative that had been killed or had been enslaved, every one of them raised their hand. (1:24)

 

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