Let's Make Change
Brother of USS Cole victim speaks out, says tons!
Tue Mar 30 23:17:14 2004
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Don't miss this one!!!!!

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [apfn-1] Hear real news: brother of USS Cole victim speaks out, says tons!
Date: Tue, 30 Mar 2004 21:08:32 -0500 (EST)
From: Let's Make Change nasf_reachout@yahoo.ca
Reply-To: apfn-1@yahoogroups.com

Listen closely and honestly to this and you'll hear not only how they covered up the investigation that could have prevented 911, but which camp basically did it. But this like so much else already surfaced should be "all we need" to sink this criminal admin and establish a process leading towards justice. like do we even know what balanced scales would look like, what that implies, hmmmmmm:

um, speaking of camps, political power blocs up there in the aethers, in the closed loop of beltway power, yesterday on Dem Now, Tony Ben, 80 yr old UK parliamentarian, said they say, "the parties are the gatekeepers of parliament ... deciding who they let in, who they keep out". if you think it's any different in the US. Yes, it's worse. i posted it yesterday. it's titled: hope is the fuel of progress. if rightwinger and liberals all listened to Dem Now for, say, 5 straight days, or 5 as closely packed days as possible, i think it may provide an antidote to liberal starry-eyedness and rightwing denial freakishness. take it as a challenge, please!:

http://democracynow.org/

Headlines for March 30, 2004

- Mass. Lawmakers Agree on Gay Marriage Ban
- Lloyd's of London, Fleet & RJ Reynolds Sued For Slavery
- Rice Still Refuses To Testify Publicly Before 9/11 Panel
- Report: U.S. Will Appoint Iraqi Prime Minister
- In 2002 U.S. Shifted Resources From Al Qaeda Hunt to Iraq
- Bush Advisor: US Invaded Iraq to Protect Israel

also contains transcript of this interview broadcast: http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/03/30/1522243
EXCLUSIVE: Brother of USS Cole Victim Speaks Out

In a Democracy Now! exclusive we speak with Anton Gunn, brother of Cherone Louis Gunn, one of the 17 US servicemen killed in the Oct. 12, 2000 attack on the USS Cole. In his first extensive interview, Anton Gunn says, "There's no doubt in my mind that 9/11 could have been fully thwarted." He discusses the investigation of the Cole attack and his frustrating dealings with FBI. [includes rush transcript]


Confronting Bush's Brain: Immigrant Rights Groups Protest at Karl Rove's House

Several hundred protesters arrived at the home of Karl Rove, Bush's top political adviser, on Sunday afternoon to call for educational opportunities for immigrants. We speak with an activist who led the protest and who spoke with Rove after he agreed to meet with two members of the demonstration. [Includes rush transcript]


University Students Say No To Paying For Their Own Surveillance

Foreign and U.S. students are opposing a new university fee that funds a government tracking system to watch them, known as SEVIS - basically charging students for their own surveillance. We speak with students at two universities who have taken direct, grassroots actions to oppose the fee. [Includes rush transcript]

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Tuesday, March 30th, 2004
EXCLUSIVE: Brother of USS Cole Victim Speaks Out

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In a Democracy Now! exclusive we speak with Anton Gunn, brother of Cherone Louis Gunn, one of the 17 US servicemen killed in the Oct. 12, 2000 attack on the USS Cole. In his first extensive interview, Anton Gunn says, "There's no doubt in my mind that 9/11 could have been fully thwarted." He discusses the investigation of the Cole attack and his frustrating dealings with FBI. [includes rush transcript] The Commission investigating the Sept. 11th attacks last week wrapped up two days of high-profile hearings in Washington.

The public hearings grabbed headlines across the country and continued to dominate the airwaves over the weekend as a political firestorm brewed over former counterterrorism chief Richard Clarke's testimony and National Security Adviser Condoleeza Rice's refusal to give one.

In the wake of the controversy over the handling of the war on terror by both the Clinton and Bush administrations, a lesser-known terrorist attack 11 months before 9/11 is once again in the news - The USS Cole.

On Oct. 12, 2000 a small boat filled with C4 explosives motored alongside a U.S. destroyer, the USS Cole, which was fuelling up of the coast of Yemen. Two men aboard the small craft waved at the larger vessel, then blew themselves up. Seventeen American sailors died, and thirty-nine others were seriously wounded.

In an interview on Meet the Press last Sunday, NBC's Tim Russert questioned former counterterrorism chief Richard Clarke about the Cole.

* Richard Clarke on NBC's Meet the Press with Tim Russert March 28, 2004.

Today, in a Democracy Now! exclusive, we are joined by Anton Gunn, his brother Cherone Louis Gunn was one of the 17 Americans killed aboard the Cole. He was just 22 years old.

* Anton Gunn, executive director of South Carolina Fair Share, a nonpartisan membership organization made up of low and moderate income South Carolinians concerned with consumer and progressive social change issues.

RUSH TRANSCRIPT

This transcript is available free of charge, however donations help us provide closed captioning for the deaf and hard of hearing on our TV broadcast. Thank you for your generous contribution.
Donate - $25, $50, $100, more...
AMY GOODMAN: Neville brothers, "A Change is Gonna Come," here on "Democracy Now! - The War and Peace Report." I'm Amy Goodman. The commission investigating the September 11th attacks last week wrapped up two days of high profile hearings in Washington. The public hearings which grabbed headlines across the country continued to dominate the airwaves over the weekend, as a political firestorm brewed over former counter-terrorism chief Richard Clarke's testimony and National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice's refusal to give testimony under oath or in public. In the wake of the controversy over the handling of the war on terror by both the Clinton and Bush administrations, a lesser known terrorist attack 11 months before 9-11 is once again in the news: the USS Cole. On October 12, 2000, a small boat filled with c-4 explosives motored alongside a US destroyer, the USS Cole, which was fueling up off the coast of Yemen. Two men aboard the small craft waved at the larger vessel and then blew themselves up. 17 US sailors died. 39 others were seriously wounded. In an interview on "Meet the Press" last Sunday, NBC's Tim Russert questioned former counter-terrorism chief, Richard Clarke, about the Cole.

TIM RUSSERT: President Clinton did not bomb the Al Qaeda camps that you wanted, destroy them, did not respond after the Cole was attacked, 17 sailors killed?

RICHARD CLARKE: Right.

TIM RUSSERT: And yet, you are saying he was more aggressive than President Bush?

RICHARD CLARKE: Well, he did something, and President Bush did nothing, prior to September 11th. So, yeah, but let's talk about the Cole. The Cole was attacked in October of 2000. President Bush was running for office. He never mentioned it. Vice President Gore was running for office. He never mentioned it. The media hardly touched it. What were they focused on? They were focused on the election, and they were focused on the Middle East peace process. I thought it was a mistake, and the very fact that I quote Mike Sheehan in the book as saying that, I think it's indicative of how he felt and how I felt. If I didn't think it was a mistake, that wouldn't be in the book. The facts have come out. The facts have come out before the 9-11 commission that the FBI and the CIA refused to say who did it in October of 2000. And the President was, therefore, faced with the problem: "Can I go ahead and bomb somebody in retaliation for the attack on the Cole, when my CIA director and my FBI director won't say who did it?"

Now, this is the same President who, when he bombed Afghanistan, when he bombed Al Qaeda camps because George Tenet and I and Sandy Berger recommended that he do it in order to get Bin Laden and the leadership team where we thought they were going to be meeting. The reaction he faced to that was the so-called "Wag the Dog" phenomenon. No one in the media, Tim, no one in the media, no one in the Congress said, "Oh, that's a great thing that you are retaliating for the attack on the United States." They said, "This is all about Monica Lewinsky," and "This is all about your political problems." So now, the same President who had the experience last time he fired cruise missiles at Bin Laden, wants to fire cruise missiles at Bin Laden, but he's got a CIA director and an FBI director who won't say, "Bin Laden did it, Mr. President." I would still have done it. I recommended doing it. Do I think it was mistake that we didn't do it? Yes. But let's understand the context.

AMY GOODMAN: Former counter-terrorism adviser, Richard Clarke on "Meet the Press" on Sunday, discussing the reaction in the media and public to the USS Cole attack. Today in a "Democracy Now!" National Exclusive, we're joined by Anton Gunn. He is the brother of Cherone Lewis Gunn, one of the 17 Americans killed aboard the Cole. He was 22 years old. Anton Gunn is executive director of South Carolina Fair Share, a non-partisan membership organization, made up of low- and moderate-income South Carolinians concerned with consumer and progressive social change issues. We welcome Anton Gunn to "Democracy Now!."

ANTON GUNN: Good morning.

AMY GOODMAN: It's good to have you with us.

ANTON GUNN: Thank you for having me.

AMY GOODMAN: Can you talk about your reaction over these weeks as the USS Cole is once again raised? An attack that did not get a tremendous amount of attention when it happened.

ANTON GUNN: Yeah. Amy, it got no attention whatsoever, and to hear it finally get some coverage in the news, in terms of just mentioning what travesty took place after October 12, 2000, was very important to my family, and really feeling like we're finally getting the attention that the Cole attack deserved. I mean, it's been probably one of the biggest cover-ups that I could ever see, about how no one just gave no attention, no credence, no response to what happened on October the 12th by any administration, or any, you know, branch of the government in terms of what happened to my brother, his 16 shipmates, as well as the other 39 that were injured. I'm so glad that something is finally being said.

AMY GOODMAN: Can you talk about that day, how you learned of your brother's death, and then what happened after that?

ANTON GUNN: Well, that morning, it was about 8:00 a.m., East Coast Time when I first saw it come across the news, as I was getting dressed that morning, that a ship in the Middle East had exploded. They didn't say it was attacked at that point. They just said there was an explosion aboard a navy vessel. And I had a sinking feeling inside that something had happened, because I had spoke to my brother by email a couple of weeks before saying they were headed towards the Persian Gulf, and I didn't find out that his ship was attacked until about noontime, that I heard from CNN. Again, I found out more information from the news stations and from TV and radio than I heard from the entire military or the navy. And it wasn't until 4 o'clock that afternoon that I found that my brother was one of the first that were listed as being killed aboard the USS Cole. My family was devastated. I was here in South Carolina where I live and work, and my family - my brother and my family - are all from Virginia. They were all in Virginia. So, I was just devastated and alone. I had no one here with me but my wife. In a frantic panic, I just jumped in the car and drove to Virginia, to be with my mother and my father and my brothers. It was a very, very, very horrible day to literally find out nothing from the military, but just to hear my father calling me crying through the phone because he just found out that his son was murdered.

AMY GOODMAN: What did the military tell you from that point on? We just heard Richard Clarke saying how the CIA and the FBI refused to point the finger at Al Qaeda. What did you understand?

ANTON GUNN: I understood exactly that, that after the Cole was bombed, you know, we were told very, very little. You know, we did hear from some military officials that they believed that Al Qaeda was behind this attack, and this was Bin Laden's hand-doing and all of those other things. They said that to us privately, but never, not once, not in, you know, two years after the Cole attack was there any public acknowledgement that this attack was committed by Al Qaeda. I mean, for literally two years, and so we knew who was responsible because shortly after the Cole, Osama Bin Laden produced a recruiting tape to recruit other men in the Middle East to join Al Qaeda. On the tape, he says, "We thank God for the victory against the Cole in the sea," you know, a couple of months ago. He's saying this out publicly. But we can't get any accountability from anybody in the navy and the Department of Defense or out of the White House or anybody that said anything that says, "We know that Osama Bin Laden and Al Qaeda were responsible." They would not publicly say it. They would say to us privately, "Hey, we are investigating this, because we assigned this to our New York field office." The FBI New York field office which is a counter-terrorism division. They deal with everything with Osama Bin Laden. So, they were investigating as if this was an Al Qaeda related attack. But they did not at one time, not for two entire years, did they publicly say that Osama Bin Laden and Al Qaeda were responsible for the attack aboard the USS Cole.

AMY GOODMAN: We are talking to Anton Gunn. He lost his brother, Cherone Lewis Gunn, in October of 2000. It was right before the elections. President Clinton was in office. Eventually, George W. Bush would take over. Was there a difference between the way the Clinton administration and the Bush administrations dealt with this?

ANTON GUNN: No difference whatsoever. They both ignored us, tremendously. They both did. It was just disgusting the way my family felt. I will say that in the moments, in the couple of days right after the Cole attack, you know, the President did the presidential thing, which is call the families and come meet with the families. We did share some time with President Clinton, as he -- as he flew directly back from the Middle East to come directly and meet with the victims aboard the USS Cole, the family members. So, he did shed a tear and spent time with us, but in terms of their response with an investigation, with just kind of, you know, letting us know what was happening, we heard nothing in the last two months of the Clinton administration, and we never heard anything the entire time during the Bush administration until, you know, most recently, last February, where, you know, they called us for some meeting to give us some information, but --

AMY GOODMAN: Anton Gunn, we have to break for stations to identify themselves, but when we come back, I want to ask you about one man. He wa

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