AMY GOODMAN: Two days after the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon, television evangelists Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson, two of the most prominent voices of the religious right, said liberal civil liberties groups, feminists, homosexuals, abortion rights supporters bear partial responsibility for the terrorist attacks because their actions have turned God’s anger against America. On September 13th, during one of his regular appearances on Pat Robertson’s 700 Club, a TV show on the Christian Broadcasting Network, Jerry Falwell said, quote, “And I fear, as Donald Rumsfeld, the secretary of defense, said yesterday, that this is only the beginning. And with biological warfare available to these monsters — the Husseins, the Bin Ladens, the Arafats — what we saw on Tuesday, as terrible as it is, could be minuscule if, in fact — if, in fact — God continues to lift the curtain and allow the enemies of America to give us probably what we deserve.” And then Jerry Falwell continued.

JERRY FALWELL: Well, the ACLU has got to take a lot of blame for this.

PAT ROBERTSON: Oh yes.

JERRY FALWELL: I know I’ll hear from them for this. But throwing God out successfully, with the help of the federal court system, throwing God out of the public square, out of the schools. The abortionists have got to bear some burden for this, because God will not be mocked. And when we destroy 40 million little innocent babies, we make God mad. I really believe that the pagans and the abortionists and the feminists and the gays and the lesbians, who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People for the American Way — all of them who have tried to secularize America, I point the finger in their face and say, “You helped this happen.”

PAT ROBERTSON: Well, I totally concur. And the problem is we have adopted that agenda at the highest levels of our government. And so, we’re responsible as a free society for what the top people do. And the top people, of course, is the court system.

AMY GOODMAN: As you can hear, Pat Robertson agreed with Jerry Falwell’s statements throughout. Several days later, Falwell and Robertson apologized, after a White house spokesperson called the remarks “inappropriate.” Falwell admitted his statements were ill-timed, insensitive and divisive at a time of national mourning. He said, “I want to apologize to every American, including those I named.” Falwell said a White House spokesperson had called him the day after he appeared on the show, and told him the president disapproved. The outcry from commentators and social justice groups made a plea against scapegoating and blame, and a call for unity during a time of tragedy.

We’re joined right now by two people: one from the Human Rights Campaign and another from the National Organization for Women. David Smith is with us from the Human Rights Campaign.

Well, they apologized, Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson. So, what’s the problem?

DAVID SMITH: Well, I think if you listen or read their apologies, they apologized for the timing of their remarks. Neither one of them apologized for the substance of their remarks. I mean, I truly believe that that’s what Jerry Falwell believes, and so does Pat Robertson. And it was communicated clear as day. And Pat Robertson, being completely disingenuous, said that he didn’t understand what Jerry Falwell had said, so he didn’t know what he was concurring with. As you heard on your tape, you know, he went on to basically put an exclamation point after what Jerry Falwell had said. He clearly knew what was being said. And, you know, unfortunately, these two men represent another dangerous part of our society that we must be very cognizant about. We must be very conscious about what their activities are, because, clearly, you know, they intend — they intended to be divisive and separate a group of Americans from what they perceive to be their mainstream.

AMY GOODMAN: Sonia Ossorio, with NOW-New York City, what was your response?

SONIA OSSORIO: Well, basically, that the damage is done, regardless if there’s an apology there or not. The damage is done, because they are able to reinforce already the themes that they have worked so hard to put out there to make their own ideology more successful, to win followers.

AMY GOODMAN: We were just listening to Thich Nhat Hanh, the Buddhist monk, a very different message that he put out. But I wanted to ask you both, in the wake of the attacks, if you feel that there is a larger scapegoating going on of the progressive community in this country? Let’s start with David Smith of the Human Rights Campaign.

DAVID SMITH: Very much heartened by the almost universal condemnation about what Falwell and Robertson had said on this program. You know, support was coming from quarters that we have not seen in the past. So, we’re not getting the sense that the progressive community is being scapegoated. We’re much more concerned about the scapegoating that’s going on with people of Middle Eastern origin or appearance. That is just a horrendous occurrence that’s taking place throughout the country that we’re very concerned about.

And we actually, in our statement — and we wrestled with whether to respond to Falwell or not, because it was two days after the horrible tragedy, and people were very, very sensitive, and it was to raise these remarks to another level by responding to them. So we wrestled with it. But what we said in our statement is, those two men, the remarks that they made were very similar to the scapegoating that’s going on with people of Middle Eastern appearance or origin, and that this blind rage, you know, this blaming blindly, is wrong, and we should all come together and condemn that as much as we can.

AMY GOODMAN: And Sonia Ossorio of NOW?

SONIA OSSORIO: It just goes to show, you know, firsthand, what can happen when extremism is allowed to flourish. And they are allowing — they are — unfortunately, such a community, that has not done anything, is being shunned into their homes. And they are reinforcing this attitude.

AMY GOODMAN: David Smith, the Human Rights Campaign, and NOW-New York City, right now, after the attacks, are you changing any approach you’ve taken? For example, there’s been a large discussion of how antiwar sentiment should be manifest, whether people should march in the streets. In your work now, David Smith, are you campaigning any differently?

DAVID SMITH: I would say yes. We’re being very conscious of the mood of the public. We’re communicating, I think, much less. Our primary work is working with Congress and the administration on a variety of fronts. Obviously, new priorities have come forward, which has limited — you know, constricted our ability to work with Congress for the immediate future. We expect that to return to normal at some point, and we’ll be monitoring very closely. But yeah, we have changed, to some extent, in trying to be very sensitive to the mood of the country and also trying, at the same time, communicating with our own community.

You know, one of the striking things about this, about Falwell’s remarks, was — and what was so painful for our community, in particular, was reports were coming in of gay people killed in the tragedy. While all Americans have suffered — almost everybody knows somebody who suffered from this, but it became even more painful to know that Falwell was blaming a group of people that actually had been victimized by this, which we thought was even more contemptible.

AMY GOODMAN: During the Cold War, David Smith of Human Rights Campaign, gays and lesbians were targeted for a long time, persecuted, being called a national security threat, could be compromised, particularly in the military. What about the history of sexual orientation during wartime?

DAVID SMITH: Well, what I can comment on and what I could speak to directly is gay people serving in the military before the Gulf War and the military issuing what’s called stop-loss orders, which basically prevent the — or, allow the military service chiefs to overlook or sidestep policies that would otherwise lead to a person’s discharge. So, basically, what happened in the Gulf War, they stopped discharging gay people, had them go to war, and when they came back from the war, they discharged them. So, similarly, what’s going on now is a stop-loss order has been issued, and the service chiefs are deciding what policies will be sidestepped. Only one so far, the Air Force, has chosen to specifically exempt “don’t ask, don’t tell.” So, the bottom line is, “don’t ask, don’t tell” is in force, and if you identified yourself as gay, you’d theoretically be kicked out. But it remains to be seen what the other service chiefs will do. But we’re obviously watching that closely. Just the whole notion of going to fight for the country and then coming back and being discharged is just not right.

AMY GOODMAN: How did you accomplish getting the Air Force not to enforce “don’t ask, don’t tell”?

DAVID SMITH: Well, we didn’t accomplish anything. I mean, they’re operating on their own. The Air Force, just to be clear, has exempted “don’t ask, don’t tell” from the stop-loss, which means that “don’t ask, don’t tell” is still the policy. In other words, if you identify yourself as gay, you’re going to be kicked out before you go. So, it appears the military is handling it differently than it did in 1991. While the other services — Army, Navy, Coast Guard, etc. — have not issued their orders yet, it looks as though that they’re going to keep “don’t ask, don’t tell” in place. And so, if you identify yourself as gay, you will be kicked out, war or no war.

AMY GOODMAN: Well, I want to thank you both very much for being with us. David Smith is a spokesperson for Human Rights Campaign in Washington, D.C. Sonia Ossorio, vice president of public information for NOW-New York City, thanks for being with us.

And that does it for today’s program in the first hour. In our second hour, we’ll be talking about the women of Afghanistan and look particularly at the South Asian community and find out what artists are doing to refuse and resist.

Democracy Now! in Exile is produced by Kris Abrams, Brad Simpson and Miranda Kennedy. Anthony Sloan, our music maestro and engineer. Errol Maitland is at WBIX.org, where you can hear us live-streamed. Also, you can go to webactive.com. Special thanks to Chase Pierson, Tony Riddle, Rick Jungers, Hoy No [phon.], Karen Ranucci, Adrian Jenik, DeeDee Halleck, Tom Poole, Lenny Charles, Sam Delgado, and also our hosts at Downtown Community Television, Jon Alpert and Keiko Tsuno. Special thanks to Charles Krezell and the Independent Media Center. Thank you to Pacifica station KPFA and KFCF in Fresno, of course, all of our affiliates around the country. We are Pacifica. You can see the program on channel 56 today and tomorrow on Manhattan Neighborhood Network, as well as on CUNY TV. And we’re on channel 9415 of DISH network. We are Free Speech TV. We’re in the historic Engine 31 in Chinatown, the evacuation zone, in exile from the embattled studios of WBAI. From the studios of the banned and the fired, from the studios of our listeners, I’m Amy Goodman. Thanks for listening.

[end of Hour 1]

AMY GOODMAN: From Ground Zero Radio, this is Democracy Now! in Exile.

ARTISTS: Our grief is not a cry for war!

AMY GOODMAN: “Our grief is not a cry for war!” Artists refuse and resist. Women of Afghanistan: terror’s first victims. We’ll talk to Eleanor Smeal, president of the Feminist Majority, and Afghan women activists. And then, the fallout on the South Asian community here in the United States. All that and more, coming up.

Welcome to Democracy Now! in Exile's War and Peace Report. I'm Amy Goodman.

In the two weeks since the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon, civil liberties and rights groups have been very concerned about the rights of immigrants coming under increasing attack, all under the banner of fighting terrorism. Now it seems democracy itself may be coming under attack, at least in New York. New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani said yesterday he’ll ask the mayoral candidates to agree to a plan that sources say would keep him in office beyond the end of his term on December 31st. Giuliani wouldn’t answer questions about his plan, but a source in one campaign said he raised the possibility of seeking an extension of his term for 30 to 90 days. By wrapping his maneuver in the theme of unity, he’s put pressure on the candidates to go along with him. But candidates may be reluctant to consent for fear of appearing incapable of handling the crisis. New York Governor Pataki has said he would sign legislation lifting term limits to open the way for an extension, providing the New York state Legislature approves. The mayor is barred by the law from seeking a third consecutive term. Hmm, mayor for life?

With the nation on a war footing, leading Democrats are backing away from their demand that the Navy bring an immediate halt to its bombing of the Puerto Rican island of Vieques. Democrats are arguing the need to preserve the nation’s military readiness far outweighs concerns about the Navy’s bombing runs on the island. The shift in attitude occurred even as the Navy resumed its bombing of the eastern tip of Vieques this week, a move that has not provoked the kind of protest that similar exercises have in the past. Anti-Navy organizers on the island, mindful of the mood in the rest of the country, have decided not to engage in civil disobedience for the time being, but hostility against the Navy’s presence on the island has not abated.

This news from Cincinnati: A white police officer was acquitted in the killing of an unarmed Black man in April, an incident that sparked the city’s worst racial unrest in three decades. The officer, Stephen Roach, had been charged with negligent homicide and obstructing official business in the death of Timothy Thomas, who was shot in a dark alley early on April 7th. Judge Ralph Winkler of Hamilton County Municipal Court pronounced sentence after hearing the trial without a jury. Officer Roach did not testify. The Reverend Damon Lynch, an influential Black minister in the Over-the-Rhine neighborhood, where the shooting took place, called the verdict an “atrocity.”

Around the United States, scores of Arab students have dropped out of college and left the country, many of them after being called home by parents fearful of war and anti-Arab sentiment following the attacks. Some 47 students from the United Arab Emirates have quit Washington State University in Pullman, Washington. Also, reports of about 100 Arab students leaving other U.S. colleges in the wake of the September 11 suicide hijackings.

Thousands demonstrated in Toulouse, France, on Tuesday evening in the memory of the 29 people killed in last week’s chemical plant blast, demanding stricter safety standards to prevent future catastrophes.

And the U.N. yesterday estimated the number of Afghans who will need some form of assistance during the harsh winter will reach 7.5 million, and the number of those displaced internally by conflict or drought will double to 2.2 million from a current 1.1 million. Meanwhile, Pakistan struggled yesterday to keep its border closed to Afghan refugees but hinted it might have to open it if many more Afghans arrive seeking refuge from a looming war. Officials hinted at the change while the government held closed-door talks with a visiting U.S. military team working on how to go after Saudi-born Osama bin Laden. With the Taliban standing firm, tens of thousands of Afghans are fleeing their homes as they try to avoid being caught up in the threatened U.S. strikes. United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees says it’s preparing for an exodus of more than one-and-a-half million Afghans to neighboring countries. Nearly 1 million could arrive in Pakistan, and half a million in Iran.

Israeli soldiers shot dead a Palestinian teenager in the Gaza Strip yesterday, as Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres and Palestinian President Yasser Arafat held talks nearby aimed at reaching a tentative truce that may lay the basis for a resumption of negotiations. Sources said it was 16-year-old Mahmoud Keshta who was killed by a bullet to his head. Nine other Palestinians were wounded. At least 588 Palestinians and 169 Israelis have been killed since the Palestinian revolt against Israeli occupation in the Occupied Territories erupted a year ago, after peace talks stalled.