Democracy Now!
Thur., March 20, 2003
ATTN: ALL STATIONS
From: Democracy Now!
Re: Rundown
Date: 3-20-03
PRSS Channel: A67.7
8:00-8:01 Billboard:
8:01-8:06 Headlines
U.S. begins invasion of Iraq, attempts to assassinate Iraqi
President Saddam Hussein: We go live to Baghdad to speak with
Kathy Kelly of Voices in the Wilderness and hear President
Bush and Hussein
Hundreds of thousands take to the streets to protest war
just hours after the U.S. attack: We go to Sydney, London
and Washington
Talk-back to war: Listeners tell us what they’re doing
in this time of war
June Jordan, an anti-war voice of the past from the Pacifica
Archives
8:06-8:07 One Minute Music Break
8:07-8:20 U.S. BEGINS INVASION OF IRAQ IN AN ATTEMPT TO ASSASSINATE
IRAQI PRESIDENT SADDAM HUSSEIN: WE GO LIVE TO BAGHDAD WITH
KATHY KELLY AND HEAR PRESIDENT BUSH, HUSSEIN
At around 9:30 Eastern Standard Time last night, the U.S.
military began an unprovoked attack on Iraq.
Air raid sirens sounded throughout Baghdad just before the
sun rose. Anti-aircraft fire filled the sky and explosions
shook the city.
Pentagon officials said over 30 Tomahawk cruise missiles
were launched from warships. Two Stealth bombers each dropped
two one-ton bombs.
It’s not clear what has been hit or the extent of the
casualties. The Iraqi News Agency has just reported there
are fourteen injured and one dead.
The US military says Iraq responded by firing three missiles
into northern Kuwait.
The attack was not the beginning of the expected massive
“Shock and Awe” campaign. Instead, it was a targeted
strike on Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and his sons.
The Pentagon and the White House evidently had not intended
to start the war this way.
Around 4 pm yesterday, President Bush, Vice President Dick
Cheney, CIA director George Tenet, War Secretary Donald Rumsfeld,
White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card Jr. and the chairman
of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Air Force Gen. Richard B. Myers
and national security advisor Condoleeza Rice met for nearly
four hours.
The Washington Post is reporting CIA director George Tenet
offered President Bush the prospect -- improbable to the point
of fantasy, yet somehow at hand -- that the war against Iraq
might be transformed with its opening shots. Tenet said the
CIA believed Saddam Hussein and the most senior levels of
the Iraqi leadership had fallen under U.S. surveillance.
The unforeseen glimpse of the enemy was not expected to last,
and so presented what one administration official called a
rare “target of opportunity."
The Washington Post reports Bush and his senior advisers
tore up the carefully orchestrated schedule of violence that
the U.S. Central Command had honed for months. They decided
to attempt to assassinate Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and
much of the Iraqi leadership in a single blow.
We begin this broadcast of the “War and Peace Report”
with special guest co-host Jeremy Scahill by listening to
President Bush’s addressed to the nation broadcast live
at 10:15 EST last night.
- President Bush, announcing the US invasion of Iraq has
begun, 10:15 EST, March 19, 2003
It’s not clear whether the assassination attempt was
successful
Three hours after the attack began, Iraqi state television
broadcast what it said was a live address by President Hussein.
- Iraqi state television’s broadcast of what it says
is Saddam Hussein, March 20, 2003
U.S. analysts are not yet sure whether that was in fact Saddam
Hussein, or whether he was speaking live after the attack.
Saddam Hussein has several body doubles. The glasses he wore
looked nothing like the ones he normally wears. The address
did not specifically address the missile attacks.
The Arab TV network Al-Jazeera reported that as the attack
began, US propaganda messages were broadcast on Iraqi airwaves,
saying QUOTE: "This is the day you have been waiting
for."
- Kathy Kelly, founder of Voices in the Wilderness speaking
live from Baghdad
8:20-8:21 One Minute Music Break
8:21-8:30 cont’d
8:30 – 8:40 HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS TAKE TO THE STREETS
TO PROTEST WAR STARTING JUST HOURS AFTER THE WAR STARTS: WE
GO SYDNEY, LONDON AND WASHINGTON
More than 500 communities throughout the US are organizing
protests for today. Activists are calling for nationwide walkouts,
strikes and protests.
Yesterday, dozens of people were arrested in Washington while
staging anti war protests in the nation’s capitol. Over
200 demonstrators marched from a park near the white house
to war secretary Donad Rumsfelld’s house in northwest
Washington.
In Boston, police arrested 36 people in two anti-war protests
at a federal building and outside the Boston Stock Exchange
During a midday march to the United Nations in New York,
45 anti-war demonstrators were taken into custody and charged
with disorderly conduct.
And Reuters reports that a wave of anti-war protests rolled
across Europe and the Middle East after the opening salvos
of the war against Iraq.
Barely three hours after the first U.S. missiles struck Baghdad,
a crowd that organizers put at 40,000 and which police said
numbered "tens of thousands" brought Australia's
second largest city, Melbourne, to a standstill.
In Germany, 50,000 school students marched in Berlin.
In Britain, activists are calling on workers to stage a mass
walkout from offices and colleges around the country.
- Bruce Childs, protest organizer in Sydney Australia
- Matt Bradley, WPFW reporter speaking from Washington
where protesters blocked a main bridge
8:40-8:41 One Minute Music Break
8:41-8:50 PROTESTS CONT’D
- Andrew Burgin, organizer with the British group Stop
the War speaking from a London demonstration
- Jenn Carr, organizer with United for Peace and Justice
8:50-8:56 TALK-BACK TO WAR: LISTENERS TELL US WHAT THEY'RE
DOING IN THIS TIME OF WAR
We turn now to you, the listeners. This is what some of you
had to say about what you're doing in this time of war.
- Talk-back to war, recorded the week of 3/17/03.
8:56-8:58 JUNE JORDAN, AN ANTI-WAR VOICE OF THE PAST FROM
THE PACIFICA ARCHIVES
On this first day of war we go back to the Pacifica Archives
to hear June Jordan, poet, activist, essayist, teacher. June
Jordan is the most published African-American writer in history.
She burst onto the literary and political scene in the late
1960s, on the wings of the civil rights and anti-war movements.
Poetry for her was a political act, and she used it to shine
a fierce light on racism, sexism, homophobia, apartheid, poverty,
and US foreign policy. Author Toni Morrison once summed up
her career as: "Forty years of tireless activism coupled
with and fueled by flawless art."
8:58-8:59 Outro and Credits
9:00-9:01 Billboard:
Hour 2: Iraqi people speak out against the U.S. invasion:
we go live to Baghdad
Booker Prize-winning author Arundhati Roy slams US invasion
as protests intensify; U.N. Security Council members voice
their opposition
Burning the “Bridge to Baghdad”: as war begins,
the media censors the voices of ordinary Iraqi people
9:01-9:06 Headlines
9:06-9:07 One Minute Music Break
9:07-9:20 IRAQI PEOPLE SPEAK OUT AGAINST THE U.S. INVASION
Sometime after 9:00 pm Eastern Standard Time, the U.S. military
began an unprovoked attack on Iraq.
Air raid sirens sounded throughout Baghdad just before the
sun rose. Anti-aircraft fire filled the sky and explosions
shook the city.
Pentagon officials said over 30 Tomahawk cruise missiles
were launched from warships. Two Stealth bombers each dropped
two one-ton bombs.
It’s not clear what has been hit or the extent of the
casualties. The Iraqi News Agency is reporting there are fourteen
injured and one dead.
We go now live to Baghdad, to Gazwan Al Mukhtar, a retired
engineer who was educated in the U.S. In a few minutes, we’ll
also hear from a retired Iraqi official, who spoke to us just
before the broadcast from his home in Baghdad and was extremely
distraught.
- Gazwan Al Mukhtar, retired engineer who was educated in
the U.S.
- President Bush, announcing the US invasion of Iraq has
begun, 10:15 EST, March 19, 2003
- Iraqi state television’s broadcast of what it says
is President Saddam Hussein, March 20, 2003
9:20-9:21 One-Minute Music Break
9:21-9:40 BOOKER PRIZE-WINNING AUTHOR ARUNDHATI ROY SLAMS
US INVASION AS PROTESTS INTENSIFY AND U.N. SECURITY COUNCIL
MEMBERS VOICE THEIR OPPOSITION
Around the world, international leaders are condemning the
U.S. war. Top officials from France, Russia, China, India,
Pakistan, Greece, Malyasia, Indonesia and New Zealand are
among the countries opposing the attack.
China called for an immediate halt to the attack. Indonesia
requested an emergency meeting of the Security Council to
stop the war. And New Zealand said it "won't assist in
a baseless war."
Hours before the bombs fell, chief UN weapons inspector Hans
Blix said it was regrettable that war would soon begin. He
reported to the Security Council that Iraqi disarmament of
weapons could have been verified in a matter of months.
Then individual countries had the chance to respond. German
Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer opened the debate, saying
his country "emphatically rejects the impending war."
He said, "Why should we now - especially now - abandon
our plan to disarm Iraq with peaceful means?”
- Arundhati Roy, acclaimed Indian author speaking to us
from New Delhi. She is author of several books, including
The God of Small Things, Power Politics, and most recently,
War Talk.
- Retired Iraqi official, speaking from his home in Baghdad
- United Nations Security Council members on US plans to
attack Iraq, March 19, 2003: Foreign Minister Dominique
de Villepin of France, Farouk Al-Shara’, Deputy Prime
Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs of Syria, Ambassador
Adolfo Aguilar Zinser of Mexico, Ambassador Gabriel Valdés
of Chile, Permanent Representative Wang Yingfan of China,
Foreign Minister François Lonseny Fall of Guinea,
Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov of Russia.
- John Gilbert, Union member in Italy who went on strike
today
9:40-9:41 One Minute Music Break
9:41-9:58 BURNING THE “BRIDGE TO BAGHDAD”: AS
WAR BEGINS, THE MEDIA CENSORS THE VOICES OF ORDINARY IRAQI
PEOPLE
The corporate media networks have “embedded”
hundreds of journalists with the US military. But they have
not one with an Iraqi family.
12-time Emmy award-winning TV journalist Jon Alpert wanted
to create dialogue and bring the voices of ordinary Iraqis
to ordinary Americans. He traveled to Baghdad last month to
set up a video conference with Iraqi students in Baghdad and
American students in New York.
The American Museum of Radio and Television was sponsoring
the event. But as Jon Alpert drove from Amman, Jordan on the
road to Baghdad, they called him, and backed out.
Jon produced the video dialogue anyway. When he returned
to the US, not one network would air his piece.
- “Bridge to Baghdad,” an excerpt
- Jon Alpert, veteran TV reporter and journalist, 12-time
Emmy award winner, and founder of Downtown Community Television
in New York City
Contact: www.dctvny.org
9:58-9:59 Outro and Credits
For a copy of today's program, call 1 (800) 881 2359. Our
website is www.democracynow.org.
Our email address is mail@democracynow.org.
Democracy Now! is produced by Kris Abrams, Mike Burke, Angie
Karran, Ana Nogueira and Elizabeth Press. Mike Di Filippo
is our music maestro and engineer.
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