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8:00-8:01 Billboard:
“Having invaded Iraq, Bush and his Hawks are Now Getting
Ready to go for Regime Change in Tehran”
INTRO: First it was Iraq, now Iran. We speak with Middle
East expert Dilip Hiro as Washington sets its sights on the
second member of the so-called axis-of-evil.
A New Report Reveals that the Bush Administration had Planned
to Invade Iraq as Early as December
INTRO: White House officials told the American people up
until March that that the president had not decided to use
military force against Iraq and would only consider it as
a last resort.
You Back the Attack, We’ll Bomb Who We Want! - A collection
of remixed war posters
INTRO: Airborne Ranger-turned cartoonist, Micah Ian Wright,
puts a news spin on old war posters as he takes on the media
and military propaganda.
8:01-8:06 Headlines
8:06-8:07 One Minute Music Break
8:07-8:20 Dilip Hiro on situation in Iran
Defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld warned Iran yesterday the
US will “aggressively put down” any attempt to
install a theocratic regime in Iraq.
The warning reflects Washington’s concern that some
Shia Muslim clerics in Iraq with political and religious ties
to Iran, will help to fill the vacuum left by the fall of
Saddam Hussein.
In recent weeks, Washington has taken a more hard-line stance
towards Iran, one of the members of the so-called “axis-of-evil.”
The Washington Post reported the Bush administration appears
set to call for the destablization of the Iranian government.
The Pentagon is urging President Bush to approve public and
private actions that could lead to the toppling of the government.
The Pentagon plan may involve the Iraq-based armed opposition
movement Mojahedin Khalq, even though it is designated a terrorist
group by the State Department.
On Monday, the Iranian opposition group, the National Council
of Resistance of Iran, said that it had evidence of two previously
undisclosed uranium enrichment facilities west of Tehran.
This comes as the Bush Administration tries to build international
support for the International Atomic Energy Agency to look
further into Iran’s nuclear program.
The U.S. also cancelled diplomatic talks with Iran and accused
the country of failing to take action against members of the
al-Qaeda network. An unnamed Bush administration official
told the LA Times that last weekend’s talks in Geneva
were scrapped because the US has information linking the attacks
in Saudi Arabia to operatives in Iran.
The Saudi foreign minister, Prince Saud al-Faisal, said he
believed Iran would cooperate with any request for the extradition
of suspected Saudi members of al-Qaeda wanted in connection
with the bombings.
Accounts in the Arab press report that Saad bin Laden, the
son of al-Qaeda’s founder operates out of Iran. The
US also believes the new head of al-Qaeda’s military
operations Saif Al-Adel is living in Iran near the Afghan
border.
- Dilip Hiro, journalist and author of 24 books including
"Iraq: In the Eye of the Storm" and “Neighbors,
Not Friends: Iraq and Iran after the Gulf Wars” and
“Iran Under the Ayatollahs”
8:20-8:21 One Minute Music Break
8:21-8:40 A New Report Reveals that the Bush Administration
had Planned to Invade Iraq as Early as December
In the buildup to the US led invasion of Iraq, White House
officials told the American people up until March that that
the president had not decided to use military force and would
only consider it as a last resort.
Financial Times reported yesterday that the decision to invade
Iraq came much earlier.
A senior aide to President Bush said the critical “internal
moment” in the White House came in the second week of
December, when the president was briefed on Iraq’s weapons
declaration. The president was told that the Iraqi regime
appeared to have made a decision not to co-operate with the
UN process.
One person who worked closely with the National Security
Council during the time said, “A tinpot dictator was
mocking the president. It provoked a sense of anger in the
White House. After that point, there was no prospect of a
diplomatic solution.”
France concluded in early January that the US had abandoned
the diplomatic path and was already determined to overthrow
Saddam Hussein using military force.
Bush administration officials indicated that the French assessment
was justified.
The Financial Times report is the first in a three-part series.
8:40-8:41 One Minute Music Break
8:41-8:58 You Back the Attack, We’ll Bomb Who We Want!
- A collection of remixed war posters
INTRO: Airborne Ranger-turned cartoonist, Micah Ian Wright,
puts a news spin on old war posters as he takes on the media
and military propaganda.
Herman Goering at his Nuremberg trial in 1946 said:“Naturally,
the common people don’t want war…but, after all
it’s the leaders of the country who determine the policy
and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along,
whether it is a democracy or a fascist dictatorship or a Parliament
or a Communist dictatorship…Voice or no voice, the people
can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That
is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked
and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing
the country to danger. It works the same way in any country.”
This quote by Hermann Goering is published on the first page
of Micah Wright’s new book of remixed war posters. “You
Back the Attack! We’ll Bomb Who We Want!” has
just been published by Seven Stories Press.
After spending four years as an Airborne Ranger in the US
Army, Micah Wright moved on to the next logical step in his
career: writing children’s animation.
Upon earning a degree in political science and creative writing
from the University of Arizona, Micah relocated to Los Angeles
and began writing at Nickelodeon Animation where he wrote
for Nicktoons’ “The Angry Beavers.” That
animation was nominated for an Emmy and an Annie award. He
is also the creator of the first true American anime show
Constant Payne and is co-creator of the acclaimed “Chet
Thunderhead: Private Eye”, animated series.
- Micah Ian Wright, antiwar satirist and animation writer.
He is the author of You Back the Attack, We’ll Bomb
Who We Want!
8:58-8:59 Outro and Credits
9:00-9:01 Billboard:
Arcata City Council Criminalizes Compliance with USA Patriot
Act
INTRO: Over 100 cities have passed resolutions condemning
the Patriot Act, but a small city in California has taken
it a step further.
Supreme Court Refuses to Hear an Appeal on the Hundreds of
Secret Deportation Hearings for Immigrants Detained after
September 11th
INTRO: The decision is a victory for the Bush administration
over freedom of the press. It was New Jersey newspapers that
challenged the secret hearings.
Government Investigates Allegations of Abuse in Two Immigration
facilities
INTRO: Behind the INS Curtain, a report from Noah Reibel.
Howard Zinn and Arundhati Roy: A Conversation Between Two
of the Leading Social Critics of our Time
INTRO: “One of the reasons for the acceptance of the
war by so many Americans…is that the American population
has had concealed from it the human consequences of what we’ve
been doing.”
9:01-9:06 Headlines
9:06-9:07 One Minute Music Break
9:07-9:20 Arcata City Council Criminalizes Compliance with
USA Patriot Act
More than 100 cities and one state have adopted resolutions
condemning the USA Patriot Act.
But last month Arcata, California took it a step further.
The Arcata City Council adopted a city ordinance that makes
cooperation with the Patriot Act a crime.
Starting this month, any city department head who voluntarily
complies with investigations or arrests under the Patriot
Act will be fined $57.
The USA Patriot Act gives the government new powers to snoop
on citizens – including the use wiretaps and electronic
surveillance and gathering information from public libraries.
Opponents say it violates civil liberties, supporters say
it helps fight terrorism.
Guest: David Meserve, City Council member in Arcata, CA
who wrote the ordinance
9:20-9:21 One Minute Music Break
9:21-9:33 Supreme Court Refuses to Hear an Appeal on the
Hundreds of Secret Deportation Hearings for Immigrants Detained
after 911
The Supreme Court handed a victory to the Bush Administration
yesterday when it refused to hear a challenge to closed, secret
deportation hearings held for hundreds of immigrants detained
after the Sept. 11 attacks.
Following the attacks, the government ordered all immigration
hearings closed if the detainees were deemed so-called ‘special
interest' cases because of possible links to terrorism. Only
the government can decide if a case is a “special interest”
case.
The appeal was brought by a group of New Jersey newspapers
seeking information about the detainees.
We asked the Justice Department for a comment, but the media
office declined to join us today.
- Nancy Chang, senior litigation attorney with the Center
for Constitutional Rights and Author of Silencing Political
Dissent. She represented the North Jersey Media Group, which
brought the case.
9:33-9:40 Government Investigates Allegations of Abuse in
Two INS facilities
Immigrant attorneys and advocates have compared the detention
of Muslims post 9-11 to the internment of Japanese Americans
during World War II. Now the government is investigating allegations
of abuse in two INS facilities: Passaic County Jail in Patterson,
New Jersey and the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn.
Right now, a report from Noah Reibel, who is a student at
Columbia journalism school.
“Behind the INS Curtain”, by Noah Reibel,
9:40-9:41 One Minute Music Break
9:41-9:58 Howard Zinn and Arundhati Roy: A Conversation Between
Two of the Leading Social Critics of our Time
Right now, a conversation between two of the most pre-eminent
social critics of our time.
One of them was born in Shillong, India in 1959. She studied
architecture in New Delhi, where she now lives, and has worked
as a film designer, actor, and screenplay writer in India.
Her first novel, The God of Small Things, won the prestigious
Booker Prize.
The other was born in 1922 in Brooklyn, New York to two Jewish
immigrants who worked in factories. He grew up in slums there,
worked in a shipyard, and was a bombardier in World War II.
In 1960, he decided to try to write a new kind of history
of the United States, a view from the ground up, from the
people who built this country, the workers, the immigrants,
the slaves. He spent the next two decades researching and
writing. In 1980 he published his history and beyond all expectations,
it became a best seller. A little while ago, he sold the millionth
copy that history book.
I am talking about Arundhati Roy, and Howard Zinn.
A couple of weeks go, Arundhati Roy and Howard Zinn had a
conversation in front of thousands, in Riverside Church in
Harlem. The event was sponsored by the Center for Economic
and Social Rights, and the Lannan Foundation.
This is what they had to say to each other.
- Howard Zinn and Arundhati Roy, Riverside Church, May 12th
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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