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Democracy Now!
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From: Democracy Now!
Re: Rundown 11-11-03
PRSS Channel: A67.7
8:00-8:01 Billboard:
Supreme Court To Hear First Case on Guantanamo Detainees
Why is President Bush Maintaining a Ban On Seeing War’s
Returning Casualties?
“My Son Died For Oil” – In a Democracy
Now! Veterans Day Special We Hear From Military Families of
Soldiers in Iraq
Another Former Intelligence Official Blows the Whistle on
9/11
8:01-8:06 Headlines
8:06-8:07 One Minute Music Break
8:07-8:20 Supreme Court To Hear First Case on Guantanamo
Detainees
INTRO: The Supreme Court agreed yesterday to decide whether
prisoners at Guantanamo Bay are entitled to access to civilian
courts to challenge their open-ended detention. We speak with
Michael Ratner of the Center for Constitutional Rights.
The Supreme Court agreed yesterday to decide whether prisoners
at a U.S. military prison in Guantanamo Bay are entitled to
access to civilian courts to challenge their open-ended detention.
It is the first time the justices will decide a case on the
Bush administration's anti-terrorism policy. The New York
Times describes the decision as “an unmistakable rebuff”
of the Bush administration’s position. The U.S. considers
the detainees enemy combatants, not prisoners of war who are
entitled to specific protections under international law.
The court said it would resolve only the jurisdictional question
of whether the federal courts can hear such a challenge and
not whether these detentions are in fact unconstitutional.
The appeals were made by a group of 16 detainees - including
two British, two Australians and 12 Kuwaitis - held for more
than 18 months without access to their families or to lawyers,
and held without any charges brought against them. They are
among about 660 detainees from more than 40 nations held at
the U.S. Navy base in Cuba following their capture during
the war in Afghanistan.
- Michael Ratner, president, Center for Constitutional
Rights.
Link: www.ccr-ny.org
Why is President Bush Maintaining a Ban On Seeing War’s
Returning Casualties?
INTRO: President Bush has still yet to attend the funeral
of a single US soldier killed in action since he took office
and his administration is maintaining a ban on journalists
filming caskets returning to the U.S. from Iraq and Afghanistan.
On December 21 1989, President George Bush senior was holding
a press conference about the US intervention in Panama as
the first American fatalities from the conflict were arriving
at Dover.
At the beginning of the briefing the president had told reporters
he was suffering from neck pain. At the end he did a duck
walk to illustrate his stiffness.
Unbeknown to the White House, three major news networks had
moved to a split screen. While the president shared his light-hearted
moment with the press corps on one half, America's dead were
arriving in caskets on the other. It was a public relations
disaster. White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwater described
the coverage as "outrageous and unfair" and vowed
to express his "extreme dissatisfaction" to the
channels concerned.
Less than a year later the White House decreed a ban on traditional
military ceremonies and media coverage marking the return
of the bodies of US soldiers to Dover. It was an abrupt shift
in policy for what had become a national wartime ritual. Along
with yellow ribbons and flag waving, the scenes from Dover
were part of the American war experience.
For the next 12 years the ban was largely ignored, even after
it was extended to all military bases during the last days
of the Clinton administration. But this March, shortly before
the war began, the Pentagon handed down a directive that made
it perfectly clear it expected the policy to be heeded.
- Michael Ratner, president, Center for Constitutional Rights.
Link: www.ccr-ny.org
8:20-8:21 One Minute Music Break
8:21-8:40 “My Son Died For Oil” –
In a Democracy Now! Veterans Day Special We Hear From Military
Families of Soldiers in Iraq
INTRO: As the latest polls say that nearly half of Americans
now say that the Iraq war was not worth it, we hear from two
women whose husbands are currently deployed in Iraq as well
as a mother who lost her son in Iraq.
Today is veteran’s day and we are going to spend the
rest of the hour hearing from veterans, from families who
have lost loved ones in Iraq, as well as two women whose husbands
are currently deployed in Iraq. Today, a number of veterans
groups are protesting outside the Walter Reed Medical Center
in Maryland, the main hospital treating returning wounded
soldiers.
Their protest comes as a new report in the military newspaper,
Stars and Stripes, reveals that more than 7,000 wounded US
soldiers have been treated at a single US military hospital
– Landstuhl Regional Medical Center – in Germany.
The counts of wounded treated at other US military hospitals
is unknown. Some veterans groups are calling for an immediate
investigation to determine how and why the US military is
downplaying or concealing the high number of wounded. According
to Pentagon figures, nearly 400 US soldiers have died in Iraq
since the invasion began in March.
Meanwhile, the latest polls say that nearly half of Americans
now say that the Iraq war was not worth it.
- Jane Bright, mother of Sgt. Evan Ashcraft who died on
July 24 along with two other U.S. soldiers in an ambush
near Mosul. Evan was 24 years old.
- Candance Robison, her husband, Army 1st Lieutenant Mike
Robison, is stationed with the 82nd Airborne Division in
Fallujah.
- Jari Sheese, her husband, Douglas Salewesky, is currently
deployed in Iraq where he was tasked with setting up Iraqi
media.
8:40-8:41 One Minute Music Break
8:41-8:58 Another Former Intelligence Official Blows
the Whistle on 9/11
INTRO: Veteran Pentagon Middle East analyst Peter Molan
speaks out on the invasion of Iraq, his work on the 9/11 investigation
and why he is protesting in front of Walter Reid Medical Center
today.
- Peter Molan, Department of Defense Middle East analyst
for 25 years. He began his military career with the US Army
in the Middle East during the 1967 Arab-Israeli War. Went
on to work at the Department of Defense until August 2001,
when he retired. After the 9-11 attacks, he was recalled
to duty because he speaks fluent Arabic. He was one of the
people working on the bin Laden dossier for the Pentagon.
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 Mike Burke, Sharif Abdel Kouddous,
Ana Nogueira, Elizabeth Press, Jeremy Scahill and Parvez Sharma.
Mike Di Filippo is our engineer.
Thanks also to Uri Galed, Angela Alston, Orlando Richards,
Simba Russeau, Johnny Sender, Rich Kim, Joe Murgio, John Randolph,
Chris Zucker, Karen Ranucci, Denis Moynihan, Eric Rweyemamu
(RAY MA MU), Jenny Filipazzo and Isis Phillips.
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