Home > Programs
> Democracy
Now! > Fri., May 23, 2003
Democracy Now!
ATTN: ALL STATIONS
From: Democracy Now!
Re: Rundown 5-23-03
PRSS Channel: A67.7
8:00-8:01 Billboard:
U.N. Security Council Lifts a Decade of Devastating Sanctions
Responsible for the Deaths of up to One Million Iraqi Children
INTRO: The resolution gives the U.S. administration an international
legal mandate to rule Iraq and control its oil until a viable
Iraqi government is established
Was the Invasion of Iraq the Deadliest U.S. Military Campaign
for Civilians Since Vietnam?
INTRO: We speak with Christian Science Monitor reporter Peter
Ford who estimates that 10,000 civilians may have died in
the U.S. invasion of Iraq. This translates into 33 Iraqi civilian
deaths for every U.S. soldier death
U.S. Threatens to Withhold AIDS Drugs from African Countries
That Bar Genetically Engineered Foods
INTRO: Greenpeace has launched a campaign against Senate
Majority Leader, Bill Frist for backing a bill that attempts
to coerce African nations into accepting food by suggesting
that it could be tied to receipt of AIDS prevention funding
Children’s Programming is at Risk from a Concentration
of Ownership in the Media
INTRO: As the FCC is poised to unleash the largest wave of
media consolidation, a new study has found that concentration
of media ownership leads to a dramatic decrease in children’s
programming
8:01-8:06 Headlines
8:06-8:07 One Minute Music Break
8:07-8:20 A Decade of Devastating Sanctions Responsible for
the Deaths of up to One Million Iraqi Children are Lifted
by the U.N. Security Council
The United Nations Security Council voted nearly unanimously
yesterday to lift the sanctions on Iraq, and to give the U.S.
the legal authority to occupy Iraq and to control its oil.
The Security Council vote was fourteen to zero. Syria, the
only Arab nation on the council, boycotted the vote.
The resolution ends over a decade of devastating economic
sanctions on Iraq. The sanctions were imposed after Iraq invaded
Kuwait. According the United Nations’ own calculations,
the sanctions are responsible for the deaths of between half
a million and a million Iraqi children.
The resolution also gives the US administration an international
legal mandate to rule Iraq until a viable Iraqi government
is established.
And, it gives US occupation forces the authority to export
Iraq's oil. According to the London Guardian, expanded oil
exports could bring over $20 billion dollars a year.
- Joy Gordon, Professor of Philosophy and International
Human Rights Law at Fairfield University and author of “Cool
War: Economic Sanctions as a Weapon of Mass Destruction”
for Harpers Magazine in November, 2002. She is working on
her first book, A Peaceful. Silent, Deadly Remedy: The Ethics
of Economic Sanctions.
8:20-8:21 One Minute Music Break
8:21-8:40 Was the invasion of Iraq the deadliest U.S. military
campaign for civilians since Vietnam?
While the world’s attention is focused on the lifting
of the UN sanctions in Iraq, we turn now to another story
from Iraq that has received practically no attention.
The Christian Science Monitor is reporting the evidence is
mounting that suggests between 5,000 and 10,000 Iraqi civilians
died during the US invasion.
The Monitor reports that this would make the Iraq war the
deadliest campaign for noncombatants that US forces have fought
since Vietnam.
The estimate is based on data provided by researchers involved
in independent surveys of the country.
It is extremely difficult to obtain casualty figures for
either Iraqi civilians or soldiers. As General Tommy Franks
said during the Afghanistan invasion, “We don’t
do body counts.” The Monitor’s estimates are higher
than any previously reported.
By another measure of violence against civilians the war
in Iraq was particularly brutal. In the 1989 US invasion of
Panama, 13 Panamanian civilians died for every US military
fatality. If 5,000 Iraqi civilians died in the latest war,
that proportion would be 33 to 1.
- Peter Ford, reporter for the Christian Science Monitor
speaking to us from Baghdad.
8:40-8:41 One Minute Music Break
8:41-8:50 Big Media, Little Kids: Media Consolidation and
Children's Television Programming
With the FCC vote on media ownership less than two weeks
away, a new study reveals how a rise in media consolidation
has led to a dramatic decrease in children’s TV programming.
The new study is released by a children research and action
organization called Children Now. It concludes that there
is a strong link between a reduction in children’s programming
and concentration of ownership.
The wave of further media consolidation expected after a
relaxing of media ownership rules does not bode well for children’s
programming.
The FCC solicited 12 studies to assess the impact of the
rules changes on the media, but none of them examined children’s
programming.
- Patti Miller, director of the Children and the Media Program
for Children Now.
8:50-8:58 U.S. Threatens to Withhold AIDS Drugs from African
Countries That Bar Genetically Engineered Foods
On Wednesday President Bush charged that European nations
were perpetuating starvation in Africa by subsidizing agricultural
exports and by objecting to the use of genetically engineered
crops.
Bush claimed that American efforts to reduce hunger in Africa
have been thwarted by European policies.
This is the latest attack from the White House on countries
that oppose genetically engineered crops.
The U.S. has filed a complaint with the World Trade Organization
against nations who had barred genetically engineered food.
And now President Bush has signed an AIDS bill that suggests
the U.S. will withhold giving AIDS medications to African
nations if they refuse to accept genetically engineered food
aid.
In response to the AIDS bill, Greenpeace has launched a campaign
against Senate Majority Leader, Bill Frist.
Earlier this week Greenpeace filed a complaint with the State
of Tennessee calling for an ethics investigation of Frist,
who is a doctor by profession.
The group says Frist has backed a bill that attempts to coerce
African nations into accepting food by suggesting that it
could be tied to receipt of AIDS prevention funding. Greenpeace
says such action flies in the face of the physician’s
duty to protect and foster free, uncoerced choices.
- Charles Margulis, Greenpeace Genetic Engineering Specialist
8:58-8:59 Outro and Credits
9:00-9:01 Billboard:
“Afghan Massacre: The Convoy of Death” broadcast
for the first time ever in the US: eyewitnesses testify that
US troops were complicit in the massacre of up to 3,000 Taliban
prisoners during the Afghan War
INTRO: The film has been broadcast on national television
in countries all over the world and has been screened by the
European parliament. Human rights lawyers are calling for
investigation into whether U.S. forces are guilty of war crimes.
But no U.S. media outlet has broadcast the film.
9:01-9:20 “Afghan Massacre: The Convoy of Death”
broadcast for the first time ever in the US: in the film multiple
eyewitnesses testify that U.S. troops were complicit in the
massacre of up to 3,000 Taliban prisoners during the Afghan
War.
Today, on Democracy Now!, the U.S. broadcast premiere of
a documentary film called “Afghan Massacre: The Convoy
of Death.”
The film provides eyewitness testimony that U.S. troops were
complicit in the massacre of thousands of Taliban prisoners
during the Afghan War.
It tells the story of thousands of prisoners who surrendered
to the US military’s Afghan allies after the siege of
Kunduz. According to eyewitnesses, some three thousand of
the prisoners were forced into sealed containers and loaded
onto trucks for transport to Sheberghan prison. Eyewitnesses
say when the prisoners began shouting for air, U.S.-allied
Afghan soldiers fired directly into the truck, killing many
of them. The rest suffered through an appalling road trip
lasting up to four days, so thirsty they clawed at the skin
of their fellow prisoners as they licked perspiration and
even drank blood from open wounds.
Witnesses say that when the trucks arrived and soldiers opened
the containers, most of the people inside were dead. They
also say US Special Forces re-directed the containers carrying
the living and dead into the desert and stood by as survivors
were shot and buried. Now, up to three thousand bodies lie
buried in a mass grave.
The film has sent shockwaves around the world. It has been
broadcast on national television in Britain, Germany, Italy
and Australia. It has been screened by the European parliament.
It has outraged human rights groups and international human
rights lawyers. They are calling for investigation into whether
U.S. Special Forces are guilty of war crimes.
But most Americans have never heard of the film. That’s
because not one corporate media outlet in the U.S. will touch
it. It has never before been broadcast in this country.
Today, Democracy Now! brings you the premiere broadcast of
“Afghan Massacre” in the United States.
“Afghan Massacre” is produced and directed by
award-winning Irish filmmaker Jamie Doran. Doran is has worked
at the highest levels of television film production for more
than two decades. His films have been broadcast on virtually
every major channel throughout the world. On average, each
of his films are seen in around 35 countries. Before establishing
his independent television company, Jamie Doran spent over
seven years at BBC Television.
The film was researched by award-winning journalist Najibullah
Quraishi, who was beaten almost to death when he tried to
obtain video evidence of US Special Forces’ complicity
in the massacre. Two of the witnesses who testified in the
film are now dead.
- “Afghan Massacre: the Convoy of Death” - produced
and directed by award-winning Irish filmmaker Jamie Doran.
9:20-9:21 One Minute Music Break
9:21-9:58 Afghan Massacre, 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.
|
Listen
to the show
Help
