Airwaves & Liberty

Berkeley, California (June 16, 2008) – On Thursday, June 26, Pacifica Radio will broadcast the House Judiciary Committee’s hearing on torture. David Addington, Assistant to the President and Chief of Staff to the Vice President, and Former Deputy Assistant Attorney General John C. Yoo will testify. Pacifica’s broadcast will start at 9:00am EDT (6:00am PDT), anchored from Capitol Hill by its veteran National Affairs Correspondent Larry Bensky.

Among the issues to be discussed are the use of stress and torture in interrogations; why many senior FBI and Department of Justice officials failed to take strong actions after identifying interrogation abuses; and the newly recent Supreme Court 5-4 decision upholding habeas corpus rights at Guantanamo.

Pacifica will present constitutional and legal experts to discuss the issues involved in the hearing and will invite its listeners to present comments following the hearings.

List of Potential Guests:

• Jamie Raskin, Professor of Constitutional Law at American University
• Mark Danner, Professor of Journalism, U.C. Berkeley
• Scott Horton, Chair of the Committee on International Law of the Bar Association of New York City
• Clive Stanford Smith, Founder and Director of Reprieve
• David Bonner, Public Lawyer and Professor at University of Leicester in the UK
• Laura Donahue, Fellow at the Constitutional Law Center at Stanford Law School
• Paul Glusman, Berkeley Employment Lawyer

Tentative Broadcast Schedule:
Pre-show: 9-10am EDT / 6–7am PDT
Hearing: 10am-1pm EDT / 7-10am PDT
Post-show: 1-2pm EDT / 10-11am PDT

NOTE: Depending on the number of witnesses and how many rounds of questioning by committee members, the hearing can either end earlier or later than the specified schedule.