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From: Democracy Now!
Re: Rundown 4-1-03
PRSS Channel: A67.7
8:00-8:01 Billboard:
Thousands of students protest outside the U.S. Supreme Court
calling to preserve affirmative action
Democrats accuse House Republicans of slashing $15 billion
in veterans benefits in favor of tax cuts for the rich: We
look at the new House budget
Fragging returns to the frontlines: A U.S. Army Sgt. kills
two fellow soldiers in grenade attack in first fragging case
since Vietnam
8:01-8:10 Headlines
8:10-8:11 One Minute Music Break
8:11-8:15 THOUSANDS OF STUDENTS PROTEST OUTSIDE THE U.S.
SUPREME COURT CALLING TO PRESERVE AFFIRMATIVE ACTION
Thousands of students from across the country are in Washington
today where the U.S. Supreme Court is set to hear arguments
in the University of Michigan affirmative action cases.
Students from more than 200 colleges and universities are
expected at today's pro-affirmative action rally organized
by students at Howard University. More than six dozen buses
have come from Detroit and Ann Arbor alone. It is expected
to be one of the largest civil rights rallies since the 1960s.
And the case before the court is among the most-watched
and most-hyped cases in recent history.
- Andrea Van Dorn, Howard student organizer speaking to
us from in front of the Supreme Court
8:15-8:30 DEMOCRATS ACCUSE HOUSE REPUBLICANS OF SLASHING
$15 BILLION IN VETERANS BENEFITS IN FAVOR OF TAX CUTS FOR
THE RICH. WE WILL HAVE A DEBATE ON THE NEW BUDGET
The vote got little attention. The date was March 20, the
invasion of Iraq had just begun. So you might have missed
what happened that day in Congress.
On a near strict party line, the House of Representatives
passed a draft budget for next year. Contained in it are $1.4
trillion in tax cuts. And it has caused a quiet storm of controversy
especially among veterans groups which charge the Republican
leadership is cutting the Veterans Affair budget by $15 billion.
On the floor of Congress, Democrat Rep. Edward Markey of
Massachusetts said:
“Last night, President Bush officially created a whole
new group of 250,000 war veterans_yet he does not even have
enough money in his budget to take care of this country's
obligations to veterans of the first Persian Gulf War, the
Vietnam War, the Korean War, or World War II.
“Never before has a President cut taxes in the face
of war. According to The New York Times, the Civil War gave
birth to an estate tax and World War II expanded the income
tax. But during the war in Iraq the Bush administration plans
to cut taxes by a total of nearly $2 trillion over the next
10 years.
“This tax cut for the rich is a fiscal MOAB [Mother
of All Bombs], pointed right at the heart of the Federal budget.”
Meanwhile the House Republican leadership countered that
Veterans Affairs will not see a budget cut but an increase
of $4 billion next year.
- Rep. Scott Garrett (R-NJ)
- Susan Edgerton, Democratic Staff Director of the House
Veterans Affairs Committee
- Ashley Decker, sophomore at University of Pittsburg at
Johnstown. Ashley wrote an article published last Friday
at Commondreams.org called “Support the Warrior Not
the War: Give Them Their Benefits,” Her dad, a Vietnam
veteran is 100% disabled.
Links:
www.commondreams.org/views03/0328-11.htm
8:20-8:21 One Minute Music Break
8:21-8:35 Veterans Benefit
8:35-8:58 FRAGGING RETURNS TO THE FRONTLINES: A U.S. ARMY
SGT. KILLS TWO FELLOW SOLDIERS IN GRENADE ATTACK IN FIRST
SUCH ATTACK SINCE VIETNAM
Fragging. It is a term that has seldom been heard in a generation.
It means “To wound or kill a fellow soldier by throwing
a grenade or similar explosive at the victim”
During the Vietnam War there were hundreds of so-called
fragging incidences.
Last week the term re-entered the headlines when U.S. Army
Sgt. Asan Akbar was detained on charges that he threw grenades
into tents where his colleagues slept, killing a captain instantly
and injuring 15 other members of the 101st Airborne Division,
one of whom later died.
- Imam Abdul Karim Hasan, is the imam of the Los Angeles
mosque where Asan Akbar worshipped as a teenager.
- Luke Hiken, who is on the steering committee of Military
Law Task Force of the National Lawyers Guild. He has studied
"fragging" cases extensively.
- Earl Ofari Hutchinson, author and columnist. He is the
author of nine books including "The Crisis in Black
and Black. He recently wrote the “Army 'Fragging'
- Racial Tension Back in Spotlight”
Link: www.thehutchinsonreport.com/
8:45 8:46 One Minute Music Break
8:58-8:59 Outro and Credits
9:00-9:01 Billboard:
US troops shoot and kill at least 7 Iraqis including women
and children: We go to Baghdad for a report from unembedded
journalist May Ying Welsh
Rumsfeld ignored advice on top Pentagon generals on Iraq:
Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Seymour Hersh on the war,
Richard Perle’s resignation, Gen. Barry McCaffrey &
more
“Don’t mess with my soldiers. Don’t mess
with them because they are trained like dogs to kill. And
they will kill you if you try again”: U.S. military
detains and beats foreign journalists in Iraq. We’ll
talk to Israeli reporter Dan Scemama
9:01-9:06 Headlines
9:06-9:07 One Minute Music Break
9:07-9:20 US troops shoot and kill at least 7 Iraqis including
women and children: We go to Baghdad for a report from unembedded
journalist May Ying Welsh.
US troops shot and killed at least 7 Iraqi civilians yesterday,
including women and young children, at an intersection near
Karbala.
Officers from the Army’s 3rd infantry division say
a van packed with 15 civilians approached the intersection.
The Washington Post reports Captain Ronny Johnson repeatedly
ordered his troops to fire warning shots. When they failed
to take action, he yelled at them to stop the van. The troops
responded by firing several high explosive rounds into the
passenger cabin of the van.
According to the Washington Post, ten innocent people, including
women and five children who appeared to be under 5 years old,
were killed on the spot.
26-year-old Army medic Sgt. Mario Manzano said: "It
was the most horrible thing I've ever seen, and I hope I never
see it again." He said one of the wounded women sat in
the vehicle holding the mangled bodies of two of her children.
He said she didn't want to get out of the car.
Hours later, US Marines killed another Iraqi civilian at
another roadblock.
The Pentagon issued a statement contradicting the Post’s
account. The Pentagon claims troops fired on the van after
the driver ignored shouted orders and warning shots. And the
Pentagon says seven people were killed (not ten).
- May Ying Welsh, independent journalist in Baghdad
9:20-9:40 Rumsfeld ignored advice on top Pentagon generals
on Iraq: Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Seymour Hersh on
the war, Richard Perle’s resignation, Gen. Barry McCaffrey
& more
This from the New York Times today: “Long-simmering
tensions between Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and
Army commanders have erupted in a series of complaints from
officers on the Iraqi battlefield that the Pentagon has not
sent enough troops to wage the war as they want to fight it.
Raw nerves were obvious as officers compared Rumsfeld to Robert
McNamara, an architect of the Vietnam War who failed to grasp
the political and military realities of Vietnam. One colonel,
who spoke on the condition that his name be withheld, was
among the officers criticizing decisions to limit initial
deployments of troops to the region."He wanted to fight
this war on the cheap," the colonel said. "He got
what he wanted."
A major story in this week’s New Yorker by Seymour
Hersh broke open this major rift. We are joined by him now
to about Rumsfeld, the war, the resignation of Richard Perle
and the questionable history of former General and current
NBC/MSNBC commentator Barry McCaffrey.
- Seymour Hersh, Pulitzer Prize winning investigative reporter
with The New Yorker. His latest piece is titled “Offense
and Defense: The Battle Between Donald Rumsfeld and the
Pentagon.”
Link: “Offense and Defense: The Battle Between Donald
Rumsfeld and the Pentagon” -
www.newyorker.com/fact/content/?030407fa_fact1
9:20-9:21 One Minute Music Break
9:21-9:40 Hersh cont’d
9:40-9:41 One Minute Music Break
9:41-9:58 “DON’T MESS WITH MY SOLDIERS. DON’T
MESS WITH THEM BECAUSE THEY ARE TRAINED LIKE DOGS TO KILL.
AND THEY WILL KILL YOU IF YOU TRY AGAIN”: U.S. MILITARY
DETAINS AND BEATS FOREIGN JOURNALISTS IN IRAQ. WE’LL
TALK TO ISRAELI REPORTER DAN SCEMAMA
The international press watchdog Reporters Sans Frontieres
has accused US and British coalition forces in Iraq of displaying
"contempt" for journalists covering the conflict
who are not embedded with troops.
The criticism comes after a group of four "unilateral"
or roving reporters revealed how they were arrested by US
military police as they slept near an American unit 100 miles
south of Baghdad and held overnight.
They described their ordeal as "the worst 48 hours
in our lives".
"Many journalists have come under fire, others have
been detained and questioned for several hours and some have
been mistreated, beaten and humiliated by coalition forces,"
said the RSF secretary general, Robert Menard.
The four journalists - Israeli Dan Scemama and Boaz Bismuth
and Portugese Luis Castro and Victor Silva - entered Iraq
in a jeep and followed a US convoy but were not officially
attached to the troops.
US military police seized the journalists outside their
base and detained them even though they were carrying international
press cards.
The group claimed they were mistreated and denied contact
with their families.
- Dan Scemama, Israeli’s Channel One political correspondent
who was detained and expelled by the U.S. military
- Norman Solomon, executive director of the Institute for
Public Accuracy and author of Target Iraq" with Reese
Erlich
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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