Democracy Now!
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From: Democracy Now!
Re: Rundown
Date: 02-05-03
PRSS Channel: A67.7
9:00-9:01 Billboard:
Secretary of State Powell today tries to persuade the U.N.
Security Council to authorize an American first-strike attack
on Iraq; we hear excerpts of an exclusive interview with Saddam
Hussein by former British MP Tony Benn
Democracy now! obtains top secret U.N. documents revealing
the U.N.¹s plans for a post-war Iraq: Jeremy Scahill
reports from Baghdad
NGO-Pentagon collaboration? The International Rescue Committee,
World Vision, Save the Children, the International Medical
Corps, and Mercy Corps have already received $2 million from
the US
Can President Bush be impeached? Former US Attorney General
Ramsey Clark makes his case
Live from the United Nations: a report from U.N. correspondent
Andreas Zumach
9:01-9:06 Headlines
9:06-9:07 One Minute Music Break
9:07-9:15 SECRETARY OF STATE POWELL TODAY TRIES TO PERSUADE
THE U.N. SECURITY COUNCIL TO AUTHORIZE A FIRST-STRIKE ATTACK
ON IRAQ; WE HEAR EXCERPTS OF AN EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH SADDAM
HUSSEIN BY FORMER BRITISH MP TONY BENN
Secretary of State General Colin Powell addresses the United
Nations Security Council today. He will try to make the case
for a first strike attack on Iraq.
Each of the other 14 Council members will have up to eight
minutes to respond. Those responses will likely determine
whether the U.N. Security Council will vote for a new resolution
authorizing military force. Powell¹s speech will be televised
live around the world and is regarded as the most important
speech by an American diplomat in recent history.
Administration officials have worked late into the night
over the past week, sifting through photographs and other
classified material that could bolster Powell¹s presentation.
White house officials say Powell¹s multi-media presentation
will include recently intercepted communications within Iraq
showing that Iraq is trying to hide weapons of mass destruction
from U.N. inspectors.
The New York Times is reporting Powell may also present
satellite images showing Iraqi soldiers moving equipment and
burying objects just before UN inspectors arrived. The Washington
Post reports Powell will include declassified satellite images
of suspected mobile bioweapons labs. An administration official
said Powell may choose to reveal those photographs only in
private meetings with Security Council members claiming
that this is due to concerns about revealing too much about
surveillance technology.
But Chief UN weapons inspector Hans Blix yesterday dismissed
all of this. He said inspectors expected to be bugged "by
several nations" and took great care not to say anything
Iraqis could overhear. He said there is no evidence of mobile
biological weapons laboratories or of Iraq trying to foil
inspectors by moving equipment before his teams arrived. And
he said he had received tips from the US that led him to inspect
two alleged mobile labs. He found nothing.
In addition, Powell will try to make the case that Iraq
has links to al Qaeda. Debates have raged in the administration
as recently as yesterday, over how much to emphasize this
argument.
But an official British intelligence report leaked to the
BBC today says there are no current links between the Iraqi
regime and the al-Qaeda network.
The top secret document was written by intelligence staff
three weeks ago. It says there has been contact between the
two in the past, but the fledgling alliance foundered due
to ideological differences between the militant Islamic group
and the secular nationalist regime.
Meanwhile, Iraq's deputy prime minister Tariq Aziz told
Le Figaro newspaper today that Iraq does not want war with
America and is ready to ³explain everything² to
U.N. inspectors. The interview hit newsstands just hours before
Powell¹s speech. Aziz added: ``The American secretary
of state will not be able to show that Iraq has arms of mass
destruction.²
The interview comes on the heels of an exclusive interview
former British MP Tony Benn conducted with Iraqi President
Saddam Hussein himself. It is the first interview Hussein
has given to a Westerner in recent history.
Tape: former British Member of Parliament Tony Benn interviews
Saddam Hussein
9:15-9:20 DEMOCRACY NOW! OBTAINS TOP SECRET U.N. DOCUMENTS
REVEALING THE U.N.¹S PLANS FOR A POST-WAR IRAQ
In other developments:
*French President Jacques Chirac refused to bow to British
and US pressure, declaring in a meeting with British Prime
Minister Tony Blair that war is the "worst possible solution,"
and calling for UN weapons inspectors to be allowed to continue
their work. Blair has been feverishly trying to persuade Security
Council members to back a US attack. The Financial Times reports
if the UN Security Council does not issue a resolution authorizing
force, Blair¹s own Labour Party could be torn apart by
dissent.
*An undisclosed number of F117 Stealth fighters have left
their base in New Mexico for expected deployment in the Gulf.
The Norfolk-based aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt
and its battle group finished training in the Caribbean and
is heading overseas.
*The United Nations refugee agency says 600,000 people could
try to flee Iraq if the US attacks. The agency is drawing
up contingency plans
*Kuwait announced that areas bordering Iraq would be closed
off as a special military zone from 15 February.
Meanwhile, Democracy Now! has obtained top secret UN documents
which reveal how the U.N. is planning to operate in a post-Saddam
Iraq.
A document labeled "Strictly Confidential" and
put out by the Emergency Contingency Preparedness Strategy
describes the role the UN could play in a post-war Iraq
in such surprising detail it appears the UN may already be
collaborating with the U.S. The document also appears to show
the UN believes the post-Saddam transitional government will
basically be just another authoritarian regime but this
time, it will be operated or backed by the US.
The report is based on contributions from the U.N. Department
of Political Affairs, the Department of Peacekeeping Operations,
the Office of the Iraq Program, the Office of the United Nations
High Commissioner for Human Rights, and the UN Development
Program.
Here are some excerpts:
"In the case of a change of regime because of a war,
the UN may have to play an important role. In the short term,
the external force waging the war will be in command and may
administer the country or impose a certain authority. The
role of the UN may be confined, in the short term, to basic
humanitarian assignments, such as the provision of food and
shelter. The Oil for Food programme might continue to operate
providing the requested humanitarian aid."
The document continues in surprising detail:
"Gradually, after four to eight months, the UN may be
given more room for limited responsibility in terms of governance
and the establishment of security and justice. The UN could
be asked to provide assessment of war damages in the areas
of infrastructure rehabilitation, elections and the set up
of a transitional administration, without however, exercising
and executing function as this was the case in Eastern Slavonia
or East Timor, for instance. In the mid term, UN agencies
might be asked to assist in nation and institution building
as well as economic reconstruction. However, these programmes
would mainly be carried out in cooperation with the transitional
government bodies."
This next excerpt appears to show the UN believes the post-Saddam
transitional government will basically be an authoritarian
government, operated or backed by the US:
"Even under a new type of government, it is likely that
the country may slip back into its old ways. The new leadership
that emerges in Iraq... will not inherit exactly the same
structural basis of power, which has maintained the current
regime. However, the current regime has established a pattern
of rule that will be very hard for any future Iraqi regime
to shake off. The remnants of existing state machinery, and
the state model of governance are all likely to work against
a truly new state emerging from a conflict (either with internal
or external forces). The exercise of military and police power
and the maintenance of border authority are likely to continue
depending on the same current actors. Any future authority
will most probably utilise the remaining infrastructure of
the state, including th regular armed forces.²
We go now to Jeremy Scahill in Baghdad.
Guest: Jeremy Scahill, Democracy Now! correspondent in Baghdad
9:20-9:21 One Minute Music Break
9:21-9:40 NGO-PENTAGON COLLABORATION? THE INTERNATIONAL
RESCUE COMMITTEE, WORLD VISION, SAVE THE CHILDREN, THE INTERNATIONAL
MEDICAL CORPS, AND MERCY CORPS HAVE RECEIVED $2 MILLION FROM
THE US
A high level humanitarian delegation has just returned from
Iraq.
The delegation from the Center for Economic and Social rights
discovered that a consortium of US non-governmental organizations
based in Amman, Jordan have already received two million dollars
from the US.
The NGOs have also been participating in simulation exercises
and coordination and training activities with the Department
of Defense.
Among the NGOs who received US funds: the International
Rescue Committee, World Vision, Save the Children, the International
Medical Corps, and Mercy Corps.
An excerpt from their draft report reads: "...Several
UN representatives and one NGO interviewed by the Research
Team expressed the fear that the US military and/or either
the Department of State or the USAID Office of Foreign Disaster
Assistance will control the flow of funds to NGOs. This would
result in NGOs deemed 'friendly' to the US being able to operate
in Iraq, while those more critical of US policy would be disadvantaged.²
The research team also compares Iraq to a refugee camp.
The team found Iraq avoided nutritional catastrophe under
US economic sanctions by implementing a near-universal food
ration system. It is by far the largest government food distribution
in the world. 16 million people are fully dependent on the
food ration.
War could disrupt or destroy the food distribution system.
Guest: Elisabeth Benjamin, founder and supervising attorney
of the New York Legal Aid Society's Health Law Unit. She has
conducted health and human rights assessments to Iraq for
the Harvard Study Team and International Study Team missions.
Guest: Dr. Ronald Waldman, professor of Clinical Public
Health at the Mailman School of Public Health of Columbia
University. He has worked in emergencies in Somalia, Rwanda,
Bosnia, Albania, Congo, and Afghanistan. Dr. Waldman is the
immediate past Chairman of the International Health Section
of the American Public Health Association.
Guest: Roger Normand, co-founder and Executive Director
of the Center for Economic and Social Rights, overseeing policy
and directing projects in the Middle East and Central Asia.
In recent years he has led humanitarian assessment missions
to Iraq, Palestine, and Afghanistan, and engaged in public
advocacy and lobbying with policy-makers in the United States
and with the United Nations. He is an adjunct professor at
the Columbia School of International and Public Affairs.
9:40-9:41 One Minute Music Break
9:41-9:50 CAN PRESIDENT BUSH BE IMPEACHED? FORMER US ATTORNEY
GENERAL RAMSEY CLARK MAKES HIS CASE
The U.S. Constitution provides the means for preventing
George W. Bush from engaging in a war of aggression against
Iraq. It¹s called impeachment. Former Attorney General
of the United States Ramsey Clark makes his case.
Guest: Ramsey Clark, former U.S. Attorney General
Link: www.VoteToImpeach.org
9:50-9:58 LIVE FROM THE UNITED NATIONS: A REPORT FROM U.N.
CORRESPONDENT ANDREAS ZUMACH
We now go live to the United Nations with U.N. correspondent
Andreas Zumach, where Security Council members are gathering
for Powell¹s address.
Germany has just taken over as chair of the U.N. Security
Council. Zumach points out that the US without the consultation
of Germany called for Powell to address the Council
today, February 5th. But on this day in Germany, U.N. Inspectors
Hans Blix and Mohamed ElBaradei were scheduled to meet with
German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer. Blix and ElBaradei
had to cancel the meeting.
Guest: Andreas Zumach, Geneva-based UN correspondent with
the German newspaper Die Tageszeitung. In December Zumach
obtained an unedited copy of Iraq's 12,000-page report to
the United Nations, including portions on how Iraq acquired
its weapon capability from Germany, the U.S. and others.
9:58-9:59 Outro and Credits
For a copy of today's program, call 1 (800) 881 2359. Our
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