Some headlines from Democracy Now

Democracy Now Headlines 8/03/10

FBI File on Howard Zinn Dates to 1949

The FBI has revealed it began tracking the late historian Howard Zinn in 1949, well before he became a national figure in the civil rights and antiwar movement. On Friday, the FBI released a 243-page file on Zinn, who died in January at age eighty-seven.

Puerto Rican Nationalist Lolita Lebron, 90, Dies

The Puerto Rican nationalist Lolita Lebron has died at the age of ninety. On March 1, 1954, Lebron and three other Puerto Rican nationalists entered the US Capitol with automatic pistols and opened fire from an upstairs spectators’ gallery onto the crowded floor of the House. They fired nearly thirty shots. No one died in the attack, but five congressmen were wounded. During the attack, Lebron shouted, "Viva Puerto Rico libre!" Shortly after her arrest, Lebron defended her actions at the US Capitol.

Journalist: "Did you shoot to kill or to wound?"

Lolita Lebron: "Not to kill."

Journalist: "What was the purpose of this shooting?"

Lebron: "The purpose of the shooting was...a cry of freedom for my country."

Journalist: "Miss, can you tell us whose idea this was?"

Lebron: "It’s my idea and our idea. The four of us’ idea."

Journalist: "Are you sorry you shot these five congressmen?"

Lebron: "I am not sorry."

Journalist: "What did you say, miss?"

Lebron: "I’m not sorry, because [it was] an act of freedom for my country."

After her release from jail, Lolita Lebron continued to protest US control of Puerto Rico. In 2001, at the age of eighty-one, she was arrested protesting the US military’s bombing range at Vieques.