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Democracy Now!
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From: Democracy Now!
Re: Rundown 12-09-03
PRSS Channel: A67.7
8:00-8:01 Billboard:
Manhunt in Iraq: Israel Trains U.S. Assassination Squads
Sean "Puff Daddy" Combs Accused of Using Honduras
Sweatshops for Sean John Line
A Look At Wesley Clark and the Media's "Shameful"
Coverage of Bush's Trip to Iraq
22nd Anniversary of Mumia Abu-Jamal’s Arrest for Fatal
Shooting of Officer Danny Faulkner
8:01-8:06 Headlines
8:06-8:07 One Minute Music Break
8:07-8:30 Manhunt in Iraq: Israel Trains U.S. Assassination
Squads
INTRO: Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Seymour Hersh reveals
how a new Special Forces group assembled to “neutralize”
Iraqi resistance is working with Israeli commandoes to train
in assassination and other tactics – comparable to the
Phoenix Program in Vietnam. One of the key planners is Lt
Gen. William Boykin who declared that Bush was not elected
but appointed by God.
In his latest article in the New Yorker, Pulitzer Prize winning
journalist Seymour Hersh writes:
“The Bush Administration has authorized a major escalation
of the Special Forces covert war in Iraq. In interviews over
the past month, American officials and former officials said
that the main target was a hard-core group of Baathists who
are believed to be behind much of the underground insurgency
against the soldiers of the United States and its allies.
A new Special Forces group, designated Task Force 121, has
been assembled from Army Delta Force members, Navy seals,
and C.I.A. paramilitary operatives, with many additional personnel
ordered to report by January. Its highest priority is the
neutralization of the Baathist insurgents, by capture or assassination.
“The revitalized Special Forces mission is a policy
victory for Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, who has
struggled for two years to get the military leadership to
accept the strategy of what he calls ‘Manhunts’
— a phrase that he has used both publicly and in internal
Pentagon communications. Rumsfeld has had to change much of
the Pentagon’s leadership to get his way. “Knocking
off two regimes allows us to do extraordinary things,”
a Pentagon adviser told me, referring to Afghanistan and Iraq.
“One step the Pentagon took was to seek active and
secret help in the war against the Iraqi insurgency from Israel,
America’s closest ally in the Middle East. According
to American and Israeli military and intelligence officials,
Israeli commandos and intelligence units have been working
closely with their American counterparts at the Special Forces
training base at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, and in Israel
to help them prepare for operations in Iraq.”
8:30-8:35 Sean "Puff Daddy" Combs Accused
of Using Honduras Sweatshops for Sean John Line
INTRO: Workers say they suffered mutiple workers' rights
abuses at a factory producing the Sean John clothing line
in Honduras. We speak with the National Labor Committee’s
Charles Kernaghan about the conditions in five central American
countries now negotiating a free-trade agreement with the
U.S. known as Cafta.
Workers rights activists have accused hip-hop mogul Sean
"P. Diddy" Combs (formerly known as Puff Daddy)
of using sweatshops in Honduras to produce his clothing line,
which sells under the name Sean Jean.
In a press conference held in October, Lydda Elie Gonzalez,
a former employee, said workers have to get passes before
they could go to the toilet, are subjected to daily body searches
and were forced to work overtime without pay: "We are
totally slaves. We live inhumane lives."
Activists say Honduran workers receive 15 cents for the production
of each Sean John long-sleeve shirt, which retails for about
$40.
Gonzalez was brought to the U.S. last month by the National
Labor Committee, a US labor rights group, to highlight what
its director Charles Kernaghan calls the shocking conditions
in the five central American countries now negotiating a free-trade
agreement with the U.S.
The regional deal will be the first since the still-controversial
North American Free Trade Agreement with Mexico to open the
US market fully to goods from much poorer countries.
Negotiators from the US and the five central American countries
will meet in Washington next week to finalize details of the
free-trade pact, known as CAFTA.
- Charles Kernaghan, executive director of National Labor
Committee. He says he will meet with Sean “P. Diddy”
Combs on Friday to discuss the accusations.
Link: www.nlcnet.org
8:35-8:50 A Look At Wesley Clark and the Media's
"Shameful" Coverage of Bush's Trip to Iraq
INTRO: Matt Taibbi, New York Press columnist and contributing
writer at The Nation, discusses Wesley Clark's "unrepentant"
support for the Vietnam war and his current position on Iraq
and we look at the treatment of the media at Bush’s
Thanksgiving trip to Iraq.
Former Vice President Al Gore is announcing today he is endorsing
Howard Dean for president in a move that surprised many campaign
observers. The Washington Post says that Gore's move gives
“the insurgent candidate the establishment backing his
campaign has been lacking.”
Gore's decision is being viewed as a major blow to Connecticut
Senator Joseph Lieberman, who ran as Gore's running mate in
2000. Earlier, Lieberman appearing on the Today show said
of Gore's announcement, “I was caught completely off
guard.”
Lieberman went on to say, “What really bothers me is
that Al is supporting a candidate who is so fundamentally
opposed to the basic transform that Bill Clinton brought to
the party in 1992.”
Tonight, Dean will join most of the democratic candidates
for a debate in New Hampshire where the first primary takes
place January 27.
8:50-8:58 22nd Anniversary of Mumia Abu-Jamal’s
Arrest for Fatal Shooting of Officer Danny Faulkner
INTRO: 22 years ago today Mumia Abu-Jamal was arrested for
the fatal shooting of police officer Daniel Faulkner. Abu-Jamal
was also shot and gravely wounded. We speak with activist
Pam Africa about Pennsylvania's most famous death row inmate.
- Pam Africa, International Concerned Family and Friends
of Mumia Abu-Jamal.
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,
Jenny Filipazzo and Isis Phillips.
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