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8:00-8:01 Billboard:
World AIDS Day: Mandela Calls For More Help to Fight Disease;
UN Plan to Provide AIDS Drugs to 3 Million
U.S. Kills 54 Iraqis in Occupation's Bloodiest Weekend; Non-U.S.
Coalition Forces Suffer 14 Deaths
Shrouded in Secrecy and Restrictions on Media, Bush Spends
3 Hours in Iraq for Thanksgiving Dinner
The Strange Case of James Yousef Yee: From Army Muslim Chaplain
to Suspected Spy to A Free Man Facing Porn Charges. Is Yee
the New Wen Ho Lee?
8:01-8:06 Headlines:
8:06-8:07 One Minute Music Break
8:07-8:10 World AIDS Day: Mandela Calls For More
Help to Fight Disease; UN Plan to Provide AIDS Drugs to 3
Million
INTRO: On World AIDS Day we hear a speech by former South
African President Nelson Mandela speaking at an event in Cape
Town, South Africa this weekend.
UNAIDS and the World Health Organization are announcing a
program to provide life-saving, anti-retroviral drugs to about
3 million people infected with HIV/AIDS in poor countries
by 2005.
The WHO called on countries to train and organize 100,000
health care and nonprofessional workers to carry out the plan.
The program is part of a larger 5 and a half billion-dollar
emergency strategy aimed at preventing the disease from killing
about 8,000 people in the world every day.
To mark World AIDS day, former South African President Nelson
Mandela was joined by pop stars Bono, Beyonce Knowles and
Bob Geldof at a Cape Town concert over the weekend in South
Africa to call for more help to fight AIDS.
- Nelson Mandela, speaking on November 29th 2003 in Cape
Town, South Africa.
Link: Go to www.46664.com
to listen to the entire concert.
8:10-8:20 U.S. Kills 54 Iraqis in Occupation's Bloodiest
Weekend; Non-U.S. Coalition Forces Suffer 14 Deaths
INTRO: We go to Spain as the bodies of seven Spanish intelligence
agents killed in Iraq return home and we take a look at the
reaction in Japan after two Japanese diplomats are killed.
U.S. forces killed up to 54 Iraqis Sunday in Samarra in one
of the bloodiest battles since the fall of Baghdad. Pentagon
officials claimed all of the Iraqis killed were fighters but
Agence France Press reports that local medics said at least
eight of the Iraqis were civilians including an Iraqi woman
and child. The Los Angeles Times also reported that local
residents said some of the victims worked at a pharmaceutical
factory which was hit accidentally by U.S. tanks.
The U.S. said the killings came in response to Iraqi attacks
on three U.S. convoys near Samarra.
It came at the end of a weekend that saw coalition forces
suffer 14 deaths including seven Spanish intelligence agents,
two Korean contractors, two Japanese diplomats, two US soldiers
and a Colombian contractor. A total of 111 coalition forces
died in November marking the deadliest month since the U.S.
invaded Iraq.
In Spain, calls for the return of all Spanish troops increased.
Polls show 85 percent of the country believe the war in Iraq
was a mistake. The newspaper El Mundo editorialized "Nobody
who saw the glee with which passersby trampled the corpses
of our countrymen can still maintain that the majority of
Iraqis consider coalition troops to be their liberators."
- Dr. Andrew Oros, Assistant Professor of Political Science
at Washington College.
Link: www.washcoll.edu
- Ignacio Carrion, senior writer with EL PAIS, Spain's largest
daily newspaper. He joins us on the phone from southern
Spain.
8:20-8:35 Shrouded in Secrecy and Restrictions on
Media, Bush Spends 3 Hours in Iraq for Thanksgiving Dinner
INTRO: We speak with Harpers magazine publisher Rick MacArthur
about what is being described as one of the most secretive
presidential trips in American history.
President Bush returned to the U.S. from Iraq early Friday
morning, after spending Thanksgiving dinner with hundreds
of soldiers in Baghdad in what is being described as one of
the most secretive presidential trips in American history.
The trip was a tightly held secret among only a few aides
until the very end. The administration did not announce it
until Bush had left Baghdad and even Bush’s parents
did not know about his trip beforehand. The president left
his ranch in an unmarked car, not the usual presidential limousine
and tried to disguise his appearance.
A total of 13 journalists accompanied Bush on the trip. They
were instructed not to tell their families or editor where
they were going. On the way, White House communications chief
Dan Bartlett told reporters that if news of the trip leaked
out before Air Force One landed in Iraq, the plane would turn
around.
Air traffic controllers in Baghdad did not know the plane
heading for the runway was Air Force One. It landed without
its lights under cover of darkness.
Bush spent only two and a half hours in the secure area around
Baghdad airport where he spent Thanksgiving dinner with some
600 soldiers. He also met with members of the Iraqi Governing
Council, including Ahmad Chalabi, the exile leader who is
close to senior officials at the Pentagon.
- Rick MacArthur, publisher of Harpers and author of the
book Second Front: Censorship and Propaganda In the Gulf
War.
8:35-8:58 The Strange Case of James Yousef Yee: From
Army Muslim Chaplain to Suspected Spy to A Free Man Facing
Porn Charges. Is Yee the New Wen Ho Lee?
INTRO: Army Captain James Yousef Yee was released last week
from a military jail where he had been held for 76 days, mostly
in solitary confinement. Although he was treated as a top
spy suspect, the military has now charged with a handful of
minor infractions including downloading porn and adultery.
Critics say Yee has been the victim of hysteria similar to
that of Wen Ho Lee, the Chinese American nuclear scientist
who was once accused of spying for the Chinese.
Three months ago, news broke around the country that a Muslim
chaplain who graduated from West Point had been charged with
espionage and possibly treason.
The Washington Times broke the story on Sept. 20 in a front
page exclusive. Unnamed military sources said the chaplain,
James Yousef Yee had been detained on Sept. 10 and charged
with espionage, aiding the enemy and spying.
The New York Daily News soon speculated that the New Jersey-born
Yee could become the first West Point graduate to be charged
with treason.
Yee would go on to be held for 76 days much of it in a maximum-security
Naval brig in South Carolina. He was held among the most high
profile suspects in the so-called war on terror including
enemy combatant Jose Padilla, an alleged member of Al Qaeda.
Now it looks like the military’s case has fallen apart.
The Washington Times had prematurely reported that Yee had
been charged. In fact at the time he had been detained as
part of an investigation.
When charges were finally filed in October the charges had
little to do with national security. The most serious was
taking classified material to his home and wrongfully transporting
classified material without the proper security containers
or covers.
Meanwhile on Saturday U.S. Army Col. Jackie Duane Farr was
charged with the same crime as Yee -- "wrongfully transporting
classified material without the appropriate locking container"
as well as making a false statement during the course of the
investigation. But according to the Los Angeles Times the
military handled Farr’s case quite differently: he was
charged with the crime but was not arrested or detained though
he has agreed to remain at Guantanamo Bay where he works.
Last week Yee was released from detention. At the same time
the military added two new charges that had nothing to do
with espionage: downloading pornography on to a governmental
computer and for committing adultery.
The New York Times reports that Yee has resumed working as
a prison chaplain at Fort Benning in Georgia.
His case is now being compared to that of Wen Ho Lee, the
nuclear scientist who was wrongfully accused of spying for
the Chinese.
- Cecilia Chang, founder and executive director of Justice
For New Americans based in Freemont, California. She also
runs the wenholee.org website that advocated for the release
of the Chinese-American nuclear scientist who was accused
of espionage in December 1999.
Link: www.j4na.org
- Joseph Yee, father of U.S. Army Muslim Chaplain James
Yee
- Raul Duany, spokesperson U.S. Southern Command
- Helen Zia, co-author with Wen Ho Lee of the book “My
Country Versus Me: The First-Hand Account by the Los Alamos
Scientist Who Was Falsely Accused.” She is also the
author of “Asian-American Dreams: The Emergence of
an American People."
8:58-8:58 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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