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8:00-8:01 Billboard:
UN Security Council to discuss US proposal that would lift
the sanctions on Iraq and give US forces full control of Iraq’s
oil
Apartheid Victims Are Still Suffering: Study Finds Blacks
are Getting Poorer and Whites are Getting Richer, and an Activist
Who Lost Both His Arms in a Government Assassination Attempt
Says a $4,000 Government Reparations Payment is Not Enough
8:01-8:06 Headlines
8:06-8:07 One Minute Music Break
8:07-8:20 UN Security Council to Discuss US Proposal that
Would Lift the Sanctions on Iraq and Give US Forces Full Control
of Iraq’s Oil: We’ll talk to the former head of
the UN Oil for Food Program, who resigned in protest of the
sanctions
US occupation forces in Iraq will have the authority to
shoot looters on sight under a new security policy reported
in today’s New York Times.
The new US ruler of Iraq, Paul Bremer, announced the policy
at a meeting of senior staff members yesterday.
It is unclear how the occupation forces will inform Iraqis
of the new rules of engagement. One of the officials who attended
the meeting told the Times occupation forces are: “going
to start shooting a few looters so that the word gets around.”
The security situation in Baghdad is dire. The Agence France
Presse reports there are regular car-jackings, nightly gun
battles and organized crime gangs are terrifying residents.
Many people in Baghdad, especially women, are afraid to leave
their homes and walk the streets, which are littered with
piles of refuse and sewage. Many houses are still without
running water or electricity. The New York Times reports imposing
measures that call for the possible killing of young, unemployed
or desperate Iraqis for looting appears to carry a certain
level of risk because of the volatile sentiments in the streets.
Paul Bremer also told officials at the meeting yesterday
that ranking members of the Baath party will be banned from
public service. On the same day, US occupation authorities
announced the resignation of Ali Shnan, the physician appointed
to lead the rebuilding of Iraq's Health Ministry. Shnan was
apparently forced out after refusing to renounce the Baath
Party of former president Saddam Hussein. The US head of the
Health Ministry, Stephen Browning, said ranking Baathists
will be permitted to take senior positions in Iraq only if
they sign US-drafted statements renouncing the Baath Party.
Meanwhile, Iraqi and Jordanian civilians today filed a lawsuit
in Belgian court accusing US commander in Iraq Gen. Tommy
Franks of war crimes. The lawsuit details around 20 incidents
which occurred during the Iraq war, including three cases
in which US troops are accused of firing on ambulances. The
2 Jordanian plaintiffs are the widow and the father of Tareq
Ayub, a Jordanian correspondent for Arabic TV network Al-Jazeera.
Ayub was killed when a US tank fired on Al-Jazeera’s
office in Baghdad last month. Belgian Foreign Minister Louis
Michel today attacked the lawsuit as an "abuse"
of the law. A spokesman said: "The United States is a
democracy and I don't see why this lawsuit has not been introduced
in that country." He said, "Belgium has no pretensions
to judge the United States."
Finally, United Nations Security Council members meet today
for their first consultations on a controversial draft resolution
co-sponsored by the US and Britain. The resolution calls for
the immediate lifting of UN sanctions on Iraq. Iraqi oil revenues
would be put into a new Iraqi Assistance Fund controlled by
US occupation forces. The draft says "the United Nations
should play a vital role in providing humanitarian relief,
in supporting the reconstruction of Iraq and in helping in
the formation of an Iraqi interim authority."
- Hans von Sponeck, former head of the UN "oil-for-food"
program in Iraq. He resigned in February, 2000 in protest
over the continued sanctions on Iraq. Von Sponeck joined
the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in 1968 and
served in Ghana and Turkey. He was UNDP Resident Representative
in Botswana (1983-1984), United Nations Resident Coordinator
in Pakistan (1985-1994) and then in India (1994-1997). Until
his resignation, he was UN Chief Humanitarian Officer for
Iraq.
8:20-8:21 One Minute Music Break
8:35-8:58 Apartheid Victims in South Africa Are Still Suffering:
Study Finds Blacks are Getting Poorer and Whites are Getting
Richer, and an Activist Who Lost Both His Arms in a Government
Assassination Attempt Says a $4,000 Government Reparations
Payment is Not Enough
Investment banking giant Goldman Sachs has told South Africa
its economy must grow at almost twice its recent rate if it
is to make a dent in its massive unemployment rate.
But Goldman Sachs also said the government is moving in the
right direction, by adopting neo-liberal trade measures and
targeting inflation.
Interestingly, the Goldman Sachs report comes just a day
after a new survey by the University of the Western Cape concluded
that blacks are getting poorer while whites are getting richer.
The study found that incomes in South African black households
fell nearly 20% between 1995 and 2000, while white household
incomes rose by 15%. Last year, two out of three black households
in Cape Town townships did not have enough food to eat.
Meanwhile, South African President Thabo Mbeki recently announced
that his government will pay about $4,000 each to the families
of victims of apartheid.
The reparations settlement will cost the South African government
a total of $85 million. The Truth and Reconciliation commission
had requested nearly four times that amount.
Mbeki rejected a recommendation from the chairman of the
Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Archbishop Desmond Tutu,
to impose a wealth tax on multi-national companies and individuals
who thrived during white minority rule. The government also
decided not to back a series of lawsuits against multinationals
such as Anglo American and De Beers filed in US courts on
behalf of apartheid victim groups.
We’re joined right now by the well-known anti-apartheid
activist, Father Michael Lapsley. In 1990, three months after
the release of South African freedom fighter Nelson Mandela,
the ruling National Party government sent Father Lapsley a
parcel containing two magazines. One of the magazines contained
a bomb. When Lapsley opened it, the explosion brought down
ceilings in the house, blew a hole in the floors and shattered
windows. It also blew off both Father Lapsley’s hands,
destroyed one eye and burned him severely.
Michael Lapsley joined the African National Congress in the
mid-1970s, after being deported from South Africa for his
activism. He served for many years as the ANC's chaplain in
exile, struggling with the tension between his commitment
to pacifism and his commitment to resistance against apartheid.
Today Michael Lapsley is the director of the Institute for
Healing of Memories. Father Lapsley founded the Institute
in 1998 as a sort of parallel process to the government’s
Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
- Father Michael Lapsley, director of the Institute for
Healing of Memories. Previously he worked at the Trauma
Center for Victims of Violence and Torture in Cape Town,
which assisted the Truth and Reconciliation Commission headed
by Archbishop Desmond Tutu.
Link: www.healingofmemories.co.za
8:40-8:41 One Minute Music Break
8:42-8:58 father lapsley CONT’D
8:58-8:59 Outro and Credits
9:00-9:01 Billboard:
Operation Strangelove: "Stop Cowboy Diplomacy!"
In a form of protest against the Bush administration and his
polices of unilaterlism and preemptive strikes Stanley Kubrick's
classic Cold War satire will be screened tonight in over 40
cities in an action dubbed Operation Strangelove;
As Washington & Seoul prepare for talks on North Korea,
Noam Chomsky discusses U.S.-Korean relations
9:01-9:06 Headlines: Operation Strangelove: “Stop Cowboy
Diplomacy!”
Intro Text: In a form of protest against the Bush administration
and his polices of unilaterlism and preemptive strikes Stanley
Kubrick’s classic Cold War satire will be screened tonight
in over 40 cities in an action dubbed Operation Strangelove.
Nearly 40 years after its release, Stanley Kubrick’s
classic Cold War satire “Dr. Strangelove or How I Learned
to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb” is getting a second
life, thanks in part to President Bush
In a form of protest against the Bush administration, “Dr.
Strangelove” will be screened tonight in over 40 cities
from New York to Puerto Rico to Oakland in an action dubbed
Operation Strangelove.
Organizers of Operation Strangelove are billing it as an
action to "Stop cowboy diplomacy.” That is not
only a reference to the foreign policies of President Bush.
That is also a reference to the film's iconic ending, in which
actor Slim Pickens as Major T.J. "King" Kong rides
a nuclear bomb to Kingdom Come while holding his 10-gallon
hat aloft and hollering, "Yee-haw!"
Jen Nessel, organizer of Operation Strangelove, a campaign
to hold screenings around the country’s of Stanley Kubrick's1964
Cold War satire, "Dr. Strangelove or How I Learned to
Stop and Love the Bomb" to protest cowboy diplomacy,
unilateral preemptive strikes
Link: http://www.operationstrangelove.org/
9:06-9:07 One Minute Music Break
9:07-9:20 As Washington & Seoul prepare for talks on
North Korea, Noam Chomsky discusses U.S.-Korean relations
North Korea is saying the Bush administration’s decision
to keep Pyongyang on its list of "state sponsors of terrorism"
is intended to provide a pretext to attack the country and
make nuclear talks tougher. This according to a report by
Reuters.
The US State Department recently issued an annual report
keeping North Korea on its terrorism list with Cuba, Iran,
Iraq, Libya, Sudan and Syria.
This comes as South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun prepared
for talks with Present Bush on the nuclear crisis. Washington
and Seoul say they want a diplomatic outcome, although the
United States has not ruled out a military option.
Well today we are going to spend the rest of the hour with
Noam Chomsky talking about U.S.-Korean relations. He spoke
yesterday at Stony Brook University on Long Island in New
York.
Noam Chomsky, institute professor and professor of linguistics
at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is the author
of 9-11, Power and Terror and many other books.
9:20-9:21 One Minute Music Break
9:21-9:40 Chomsky cont’d
9:40-9:41 One Minute Music Break
9:41-9:58 Chomsky cont’d
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 Abdul 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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