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Democracy Now!
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From: Democracy Now!
Re: Rundown 6-30-03
PRSS Channel: A67.7
8:00-8:01 Billboard:
On the Eve of President Bush’s First Trip to Africa,
Democracy Now! Looks at Two Flashpoints on the Continent -
Liberia and Congo
INTRO: A discussion with Jacob Massaquoi, political and
human rights activist in Liberia, Director of Africa Action
Salih Booker and founder of the Patrice Lumumba Coalition
Elombe Brath. Today is the 43rd anniversary of Congolese independence.
Sen. Robert Byrd: The Road of Cover-Up on Iraq is a Road
to Ruin
INTRO: The Senate’s eldest member accuses the White
House of “revising history” regarding Iraq’s
threat to the world and calls for a full-scale investigation
into U.S. intelligence failures.
8:01-8:06 Headlines
8:06-8:07 One Minute Music Break
8:07-8:31 On the Eve of President Bush’s First Trip
to Africa, Democracy Now! Looks at Two Flashpoints on the
Continent - Liberia and Congo
INTRO: A discussion with Jacob Massaquoi, political and
human rights activist in Liberia, Director of Africa Action
Salih Booker and founder of the Patrice Lumumba Coalition
Elombe Brath. Today is the 43rd anniversary of Congolese independence.
West African countries urged the US yesterday to join them
in sending a force to stop the civil war in Liberia. The UN
security council mission said it expected the world body to
back intervention.
Two failed rebel assaults this month on Monrovia - the capital
of Liberia - have left an estimated 700 people dead and prompted
calls for a peacekeeping force from UN secretary general,
Kofi Annan, Britain, France and legions of Liberians.
In the worst-hit western pockets of the city, shells still
littered the streets on Saturday and homes were deserted.
In other parts, thousands of people who had run from their
homes crowded into ruined buildings, schools and the city
stadium. This according to The New York Times.
In their makeshift camps, short on running water and sanitation
facilities, Monrovians are also facing a cholera outbreak.
Many arrived at clinics in wheelbarrows.
The US is under the most pressure to step in to help end
the fighting having historic ties to Liberia since it was
founded as a colony for freed American slaves 150 years ago.
President George W. Bush, who will make his first visit to
Africa next week, called on the Liberian president, Charles
Taylor, to step aside last week, but stopped short of committing
U.S. forces to the effort.
On Thursday, a furious mob laid out corpses outside the
U.S. embassy and screamed for American intervention to put
an end to the killing.
In other news from Africa, warring sides in the Congo have
agreed on the formation of a unified military - one of the
last main sticking points for the country’s peace agreement.
In the negotiations, the government and two main rebel groups
agreed to divide major military posts between them.
The conflict has been called “Africa’s first
world war,” as armies and militias from Zimbabwe, Angola,
Zambia, Namibia, Rwanda, Uganda and the Kabila government
fight over the vast territory and rich mineral deposits in
Congo.
Aid groups estimate the 5-year civil war in the central African
nation have claimed over 3 million lives.
On Thursday, the UN security council extended the mandate
of the UN Peacekeeping force in the Congo through July. UN
Secretary General Kofi Annan has asked the Security Council
to increase the peacekeeping force on the ground to over 10,000
troops.
Today is the 43rd anniversary of Congolese independence.
Patrice Lumumba became the government’s first Prime
Minister following the country’s independence on June
30th 1960. Within six months he was assassinated in a CIA
backed coup the brought the Dictator Mubuto Sese Seko to power.
- Jacob Massaquoi, political and human rights activist
in Liberia. He was a liaison for the International Association
for Volunteer Efforts and is a co-founder of Free Teens
Liberia. He was jailed, beaten and tortured in Liberia and
accused of disseminating false and damaging information
to Taylor’s regime. He sought and received political
asylum in the U.S. last year.
- Elombe Brath, founder of the Patrice Lumumba coalition
and WBAI producer of Africa Kaleidoscope.
8:31-8:32 One Minute Music Break
8:32-8:58 Sen. Robert Byrd: The Road of Cover-Up on Iraq
is a Road to Ruin
INTRO: The Senate’s eldest member accuses the White
House of “revising history” regarding Iraq’s
threat to the world and calls for a full-scale investigation
into U.S. intelligence failures.
Throughout the war, one of the only outspoken voices in
government against the Bush doctrine of preemption was West
Virginia’s Senator Robert Byrd.
On Tuesday, June 24, on the floor of the Senate, the body’s
oldest member delivered an impassioned address calling for
a full-scale investigation into US intelligence failures.
“Congress should begin immediately an investigation
into the intelligence that was presented to the American people
about the pre-war estimates of Saddam's weapons of mass destruction
and the way in which that intelligence might have been misused,”
Byrd said. “This is no time for a timid Congress. We
have a responsibility to act in the national interest and
protect the American people. We must get to the bottom of
this matter.”
He also accused the White House of “revising history”
as it seeks to explain the failure of US troops in Iraq to
uncover weapons of mass destruction.
“Whether or not intelligence reports were bent, stretched,
or massaged to make Iraq look like an imminent threat to the
United States, it is clear that the Administration's rhetoric
played upon the well-founded fear of the American public about
future acts of terrorism,” Byrd said. “But, upon
close examination, many of these statements have nothing to
do with intelligence, because they are at root just sound
bites based on conjecture. They are designed to prey on public
fear.”
Tape: Senator Robert Byrd speaking on the Senate floor on
June 24th, 2003: “The Road to Cover-Up on Iraq is the
Road to Ruin”
8:58-8:59 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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