anjali kamat

As Libya’s former rebels begin to govern the country after the ouster of longtime leader Col. Muammar Gaddafi, we look at those who remain. Democracy Now! correspondent Anjali Kamat has just spent 10 days crossing Libya, speaking with fighters, former political prisoners, journalists, and advisers to the new government. One point is clear, says Kamat: "Nobody wants foreign troops on the ground. No one wants bases. And no one wants private military contractors, either." As the African Union meets today, Columbia University Professor and Africa scholar Mahmood Mamdani joins us to give his take on the regional and global implications of NATO’s intervention in Libya, which he says threatens to increase the militarization of the African continent. Near the end of Monday’s Republican presidential debate, Republican Rep. Ron Paul of Texas drew boos from the crowd and a rebuke from other candidates on the podium when he criticized U.S. foreign policy in discussing the roots of the 9/11 attacks. Our guest, Columbia University Professor Mahmood Mamdani, responded to Dr. Paul’s comments by saying, “He sounds like a professor. He’s trying to educate his audience and the audience is not ready to be educated, it wants to be rallied to a cause that it doesn’t have to think about.”  A new U.S. Census Bureau report reveals the number of people living in poverty last year surged to 46.2 million — 1 in 6 Americans, the highest number since the Bureau began tracking such data more than 50 years ago. We speak with Heidi Shierholz, labor economist at the Economic Policy Institute. Democracy Now!, a daily independent newshour.

Fears of a full-scale nuclear reactor meltdown are increasing as Japanese authorities use military helicopters to dump water on the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station. investigative journalist, Karl Grossman, notes a 1985 report by the National Regulatory Commission acknowledged a 50 percent chance of a severe core accident among the more than 100 nuclear power plants in the United States over a 20-year period. The official death toll from the earthquake and tsunami has risen to 5,000, and at least 9,400 people are missing. Some 850,000 households have no power, and 1.5 million houses lack running water. Food and gas supplies have been nearly exhausted. We speak with video journalist Tetsuo Jimbo, who is in Sendai, Japan, one of the worst-hit areas. For more on the emergency response effort, we speak with Steven Leeper of the Peace Culture Foundation, which manages the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum in Hiroshima. We speak with leading Japanese cultural anthropologist and environmentalist Keibo Oiwa in Yokohama. He is the founder of the Sloth Club, Japan’s leading "Slow Life" environmental group. Former Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide is preparing to return to Haiti after seven years in exile. Aristide has lived in South Africa since his ouster in a 2004 U.S.-backed coup. Reporting from Johannesburg, Democracy Now!’s Amy Goodman speaks with Aristide’s attorney Ira Kurzban and actor Danny Glover as they prepare to accompany Aristide back to his country. Reporting from the rebel-held city of Benghazi in eastern Libya, Democracy Now! correspondent Anjali Kamat visits a new media center established by anti-government forces to report on their struggle against forces loyal to Col. Muammar Gaddafi. Democracy Now!, a daily independent newshour.

More than 100,000 people rallied in Madison on Saturday against Wisconsin Republican Gov. Scott Walker’s effort to remove the collective bargaining rights of most public-sector workers. It was the largest demonstration Madison has seen since the Vietnam War. We broadcast some of the voices from the rally. Hundreds of demonstrators continue the round-the-clock occupation of the Wisconsin State Capitol building in defiance of orders to leave. Capitol Police have refused to enforce Gov. Scott Walker’s demand after hundreds of peaceful labor activists, students and supporters held their ground. We speak to Wisconsin Democratic State Rep. Kelda Helen Roy, who was among those to stay overnight in the Capitol building. As anti-government rebels close in on the Libyan capital city of Tripoli, we get the latest from Democracy Now! correspondent Anjali Kamat. In the liberated city of Benghazi where pro-Gaddafi forces have been ousted, Libyan people are now organizing a self-government structures to manage the city, and Kamat speaks with two female Libyan attorneys who are very involved in the Coalition. Estimates of the death toll in Libya have reached at least 2,000 and more than 100,000 people are believed to have fled the country into neighboring Egypt and Tunisia. We speak to Sarah Leah Whitson of Human Rights Watch, who has just returned from the Libya-Tunisia border. Democracy Now!, a daily independent newshour.

Some 30,000 students and public sector workers rallied at the Wisconsin State House in Madison Thursday to oppose Republican Gov. Scott Walker’s bid to eliminate almost all their collective bargaining rights and slash pay and benefits. Public schools in Madison are closed for a third day in a row today as teachers continue to protest. A vote on the measure was delayed after Democratic senators refused to show up and fled the state—leaving the Republican-controlled State Senate without quorum. We speak to John Nichols of The Nation magazine, Madison teacher Susan Stern, and Wisconsin Democratic State Senator Chris Larson. Tens of thousands have gathered for a victory march through Cairo’s Tahrir Square today to celebrate the overthrow of longtime Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. Democracy Now! Senior Producer Sharif Abdel Kouddous reports from Cairo. Seventeen-year-old Egyptian high school student Sanaa El Seif is helping to publish a newspaper in defiance of rules requiring government permission. So far, the publication has focused on the voices of Tahrir Square. Democracy Now! correspondent Anjali Kamat speaks to Khaled Ali, a labor lawyer with the Egyptian Center for Economic and Social Rights. This week, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton gave a major address calling for Internet freedom around the world. Former U.S. Army and CIA officer Ray McGovern was violently ejected from the audience and arrested after he stood up and turned his back in a silent protest of America’s foreign policy. Ray McGovern joins us from Washington, D.C. Democracy Now!, a daily independent newshour.