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8:00-8:01 Billboard:
Precarious situation in Baghdad: As protests against a U.S.
occupation in Iraq continue, we speak to Kathy Kelly of Voices
in the Wilderness who just left Baghdad
Mines and unexploded munitions in Iraq continue to maim and
kill: Sean Sutton of the Mines Advisory Group reports from
Northern Iraq.
Animals in the military: A look at how the U.S. military
has enlisted dolphins, chickens, dogs, sea lions and pigeons
in Iraq
8:01-8:06 Headlines
8:06-8:07 One Minute Music Break
8:07-8:20 PRECARIOUS SITUATION IN BAGHDAD: REPORT FROM KATHY
KELLY OF VOICES IN THE WILDERNESS
In Baghdad, hundreds of Shiites yesterday staged demonstrations
outside the Palestine Hotel for the second straight day. They
demanded the release of Baghdad’s leading Shiite cleric
Sheikh Muhammad al-Fartusi, who they said had been arrested
by US forces.
Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal is reporting hundreds
of flourishing gun fairs have sprung up around Iraq since
the fall of Saddam. Under Saddam, Iraqi’s needed to
go through strict background checks by the secret police before
they could obtain a gun license; now anyone who has money
can buy a gun.
At one market in a Shiite area of Baghdad, an oil-company
worker told the Journal people are buying weapons to kill
US soldiers if they don’t leave the country.
We go now to Amman to speak with Kathy Kelly of Voice In
the Wilderness. She recently left Iraq where she was during
the U.S. invasion.
- Kathy Kelly, founder of Voices in the Wilderness. She
just traveled to Jordan from Baghdad and speaks to us from
Amman.
8:20-8:21 One Minute Music Break
8:21-8:40 MINES AND UNEXPLODED MUNITIONS IN IRAQ CONTINUE
TO MAIM AND KILL: SEAN SUTTON OF THE MINES ADVISORY GROUP
SPEAKS FROM NORTHERN IRAQ
Mines and unexploded munitions have killed 52 people and
injured 63 in the Iraqi city of Kirkuk over just the past
week. The Daily Mirror of London is reporting that most of
the victims were children. Iraq is being reminded once again
that long after the combat fighting ends, the killing continues.
Over the past week the mine-clearing charity The Mines Advisory
Group has removed 30 truckloads of explosives that is: 11,000
mines plus 200,000 bombs and missiles.
But it is estimated that 10 million mines remain lying in
Iraq over the past war-torn decade.
- Sean Sutton of the Mines Advisory Group joins us from
Northern Iraq.
8:40-8:41 One Minute Music Break
8:41-8:58 DISCUSSION ON USE OF ANIMALS IN THE MILITARY
“War is not healthy for children and other living things."
These words were first written by mothers in the United States
during the Vietnam War. They were concerned that their children
were being sent halfway around the world to kill the children
of Vietnamese mothers. They put the statement on a postcard
and sent it to Congress.
Since then, the words have become a powerful description
of wartime destruction of not only people but also animals
and the environment.
In the invasion of Iraq the Pentagon reportedly has enlisted
dolphins, chickens, dogs, sea lions and pigeons. Plus there
are reports that Moracco gave the U.S. 2,000 monkeys to assist
with de-mining projects.
Dolphins are scouting seaports in search of mines. The dolphins
are equipped with cameras that transmit video images back
to their handlers. When they find a mine they are trained
to report back by playing with a so-called “I’ve
found something” rubber ball. When the dolphins find
a mine, their minder sends a group of human divers to the
area to detonate it. The Washington Post reports that Atlantic
bottlenose dolphin is the seafaring equivalent of bomb-sniffing
dogs.
The Marines have been using chickens and pigeons in Kuwait
to detect poison gas. But the Marines have admitted that dozens
of the birds never made it to the Middle East after dying
in transit.
The deceased chickens and pigeons will hardly be the first
U.S. animals not to return to the states after a war. According
to PETA, 5,000 dogs served alongside U.S. troops in Vietnam.
Only 140 came home. Some died in Vietnam but most were abandoned
by the military.
- William R. Rivas-Rivas, PETA Campaign Coordinator
- David Helvarg, Author of Blue Frontier - Saving America's
Living Seas and founder of the Blue Frontier Campaign in
Washington D.C.
8:58-8:59 Outro and Credits
9:00-9:01 Billboard:
Lawyers in Louisiana are claiming DNA evidence proves another
man on death row is innocent: We look at the case of 23-year-old
Ryan Matthews and hear from his family and attorney
More than two million people gather in Karbala for the “spring
of Shiites in the world”: A report from Al-Jazeera correspondent
Yusef Allshouly in Karbala and Professor As’ad AbuKhalil
of California State University.
Columbia University Professor Edward Said: History, colonialism
and how the US is changing the map of the Middle East.
9:01-9:06 Headlines
9:06-9:07 One Minute Music Break
9:07-9:30 NEWLY DISCOVERED DNA EVIDENCE PROVES DEATH ROW
JUVENILE INNOCENT
“This is a classic case of wrongful conviction. He
was a juvenile, mentally retarded and put on death row for
a crime he did not commit.” These are the words of Clive
Stafford Smith, one of the attorneys for Ryan Mathews a 23
year-old inmate on death row.
Mathews was 17 when he was arrested for the 1997 murder of
Bridge City grocer Tommy Vanhoose.
Attorneys for Mathews say DNA tests have proved that he is
innocent and that another inmate was the killer.
During the trial experts testified that the DNA evidence
did not match Mathews or the getaway driver, Travis Hayes,
who is serving a life sentence for the crime.
Mathews was largely convicted on the testimony of two eye
witnesses whose testimony has been questioned.
Smith said that Mathews fits the legal definition of mentally
retarded and cannot be executed because of a decision handed
down by the US Supreme Court last year.
- Video: Clive Stafford Smith (from Press Conference 4/21/03)
- Director, Louisiana Crisis Assistance Center
- Exclusive Video: James Harrison, speaking from the Washington
Correctional Institute in Louisiana, as he discusses how
he overheard Rondell Love's jailhouse confession. Courtesy
of Off Center Productions: www.off-center.com
- Billy Sothern, Lawyer for Ryan Mathews, Staff attorney
with the Louisiana Crisis Assistance Center (LCAC)
- Pauline Matthews, Mother of Ryan Matthews
- Peter Neufeld, a lawyer and one of the founders of the
Innocence Project, a non-profit legal clinic at the Benjamin
N. Cardozo School of Law in New York City
9:30-9:31 One Minute Music Break
9:31-9:51 PILGRIMAGE AND PROTEST, THE SHIA OF IRAQ: WE SPEAK
TO PROFESSOR ABUKHALIL ABOUT SHIA SENTIMENT IN IRAQ
More than two million Shi'ite Muslims are converging on
the Iraqi holy city of Karbala, an Al-Jazeera correspondent
told Democracy Now! today. Many of them are demanding that
U.S. troops get out of the country. The numbers could surpass
one million this week as the pilgrimage climaxes.
According to a front-page report in today’s Washington
Post, Bush administration officials say they underestimated
the organizational strength of the Shiites. They are concerned
the Shi’ites could establish a fundamentalist, Islamic,
anti-American government in Iraq and are unprepared to prevent
it.
A meeting of generals and admirals at the Pentagon on Monday
turned into a spontaneous teach-in on Iraq's Shi'ites and
the U.S. strategy for containing Islamic fundamentalism in
Iraq.
One of the main strategic goals of the US since the Iranian
revolution in 1979 has been to contain radical Shiite fundamentalism.
In the 1980s, the US backed Saddam Hussein as a bulwark against
Iran. But now the US has toppled Saddam’s government.
US officials told the Washington Post that as the administration
plotted to overthrow the Iraqi government, too little attention
was paid to the dynamics of religion and politics in the region.
This comes as US officials told the New York Times that Iranian-trained
agents have crossed into southern Iraq since the fall of Saddam
Hussein and are working in the cities of Najaf, Karbala and
Basra to promote friendly Shiite clerics and advance Iranian
interests.
Meanwhile, U.S. troops detained and later released a senior
Shi'ite Muslim cleric, Ayatollah Mohammad Taqi Mudaressi,
leader of an Iraqi exile group, after he crossed the border
from Iran to attend the pilgrimage in Karbala.
And in Baghdad, hundreds of Shiites yesterday staged demonstrations
outside the Palestine Hotel for the second straight day. They
demanded the release of Baghdad’s leading Shiite cleric
Sheikh Muhammad al-Fartusi, who they said had been arrested
by US forces.
One of al-Fartusi’s students, who organized the protests,
told the Wall Street Journal: “Saddam was talking about
freedom while killing us. The Aermcians are also talking about
freedom, but they are beginning to behave like Saddam.”
Within hours, it was reported that the cleric had been released
from custody, although US officials never confirmed he was
initially detained.
- Yousef Allshouly, Al-Jazeera correspondent reporting
from Karbala
- As’ad AbuKhalil, Professor of political science
at California State University, Stanislaus. Author of ‘Bin
Laden, Islam and America’s New War on Terrorism’
9:51-9:52 One Minute Music Break
9:52-9:58 COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PROFESSOR EDWARD SAID: HISTORY,
COLONIALSIM AND HOW THE U.S. IS CHANGING THE MAP OF THE MIDDLE
EAST
Last week Columbia University professor Edward Said spoke
at a 25th anniversary commemoration of his 1978 classic work
“Orientalism.” Today we listen to a short excerpt
of Said on colonialism and how the U.S. is changing the map
of the Middle East.
- Edward Said, addresses Columbia University on April 16,2003
Said is a University Professor of English and Comparative
Literature at Columbia University. He is the author of many
works, including Culture and Imperialism and Orientalism.
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, Sharif Abdel Kouddous, Ana Nogueira, Elizabeth Press
with help from Noah Reibel and Vilka Tzouras. Mike Di Filippo
is our music maestro and engineer. Thanks also to Uri Galed,
Angela Alston, Emily Kunstler, Orlando Richards, Simba Rousseau,
Rafael delaUz, Gabriel Weiss, Johnny Sender, Rich Kim, Karen
Ranucci, Fatima Mojadiddy, Denis Moynihan and Jenny Filipazzo.
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