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8:00-8:01 Billboard:
“His Mistreatment is Pretty Much What The Roman Emperors
Used To Do To Defeated Barbarian Kings” - Francis Boyle
Discusses Saddam’s Capture
Baker Wins Iraq Debt Relief From France & Germany As
U.S. Remains Noncommittal
Spider’s Web: The Secret History of How the White House
Illegally Armed Iraq
“I Plan On Starting A Revolution In The Illinois Legislature”-
Former Death Row Inmate Seeks Office
8:01-8:06 Headlines
8:06-8:07 One Minute Music Break
8:07-8:20 “His Mistreatment is Pretty Much
What The Roman Emperors Used To Do To Defeated Barbarian Kings”
- Francis Boyle Discusses Saddam’s Capture
INTRO: Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld announces the CIA
is now heading up the interrogation of Hussein and that he
is not being legally accorded prisoner of war status. We speak
with professor of international law Francis Boyle.
During a rare television interview, President Bush Tuesday
night called for the execution of Saddam Hussein saying he
should face “the ultimate penalty.” But he said
Hussein’s fate should be left to the Iraqi people.
Meanwhile Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld announced the
CIA is now heading up the interrogation of Hussein although
the captured leader remains in military custody. Rumsfeld
echoed the White House line that Saddam was being treated
in accordance with the Geneva Convention rules governing prisoners
of war, but said his final status was being closely studied.
- Francis Boyle, professor of International Law at the University
of Illinois.
8:20-8:21 One Minute Music Break
8:21-8:40 Baker Wins Iraq Debt Relief From France
& Germany As U.S. Remains Noncommittal
INTRO: As Presidential envoy James Baker wins agreements
from Germany and France to forgive billions of dollars in
debt to Iraq, we take a look at the former secretary of state’s
talks in Germany, his 1991 meeting with then-Iraqi foreign
minister Tariq Aziz and how continued sanctions could have
led to Iraq’s withdrawal from Kuwait.
Presidential envoy James Baker won agreement yesterday from
Germany and France to forgive billions of dollars in debt
to Iraq. The agreement came after a meeting with German Chancellor
Gerhard Schroeder where Baker overcame what is described as
“serious German misgivings” about the exclusion
of German firms from Iraqi reconstruction. A day earlier France
announced it would forgive about 3 billion dollars in debt.
The White House has given no indication that debt forgiveness
could result in a slice of the reconstruction deals.
According to a senior Bush administration official, the three
nations have agreed that having a new government in place
is not a precondition for moving forward on debt forgiveness.
At the White House, spokesman Scott McClellan was noncommittal
about U.S. forgiveness of Iraqi debt: “That process
is just beginning. We are looking at restructuring and reducing
the debt.”
The former Secretary of State will continue on his five-day
trip with stops in Rome, Moscow and London. This marks Baker's
first official trip since he joined the Bush administration
two weeks ago. Baker remains a senior partner in the law firm
of Baker Botts, which is deeply involved in the fight for
the oil and gas of the Caspian Sea. Baker Botts includes Halliburton
among its list of clients as well as the Saudi government
in the suit filed by family members who lost relatives on
9/11. Baker is also a senior counselor to the powerful investment
firm the Carlyle Group.
- Andreas Zumach, Geneva-based UN correspondent with the
German newspaper Die Tageszeitung. Last year Zumach obtained
an unedited copy of Iraq's 12,000-page report to the United
Nations, including portions on how Iraq acquired its weapon
capability from Germany, the U.S. and others.
8:40-8:47 Spider’s Web: The Secret History
of How the White House Illegally Armed Iraq
INTRO: We listen to global economics correspondent Alan
Friedman speaking on Democracy Now! last year about how the
United States helped illegally arm Iraq in the 1980s in a
scandal involving George Bush Sr., James Baker, Donald Rumsfeld,
Robert Mueller and more.
- Alan Friedman, global economics correspondent for the
International Herald Tribune and author of the book “Spider’s
Web: The Secret History of How the White House Illegally
Armed Iraq.”
8:47-8:58 “I Plan On Starting A Revolution
In The Illinois Legislature”- Former Death Row Inmate
Seeks Office
INTRO: We are joined in our studios by Aaron Patterson,
who spent 17 years on death row for a crime he did not commit
and is now running for Illinois State House. He is one of
four men pardoned this past January as part of then-Gov. George
Ryan's clearing of death row in his final days in office.
A man who spent 17 years on death row for a crime he did
not commit is running for Illinois State House. Aaron Patterson
was one of four men pardoned this past January as part of
Illinois Gov. George Ryan's clearing of death row in his final
days in office.
Patterson was convicted of killing an elderly Chicago couple
in 1986. He spent 17 years on death row mostly in a 6-by-9-foot
cell despite repeated claims of innocence and accusations
that police tortured him to confess to the murder. He is now
39 years old.
This past January, then-Governor of Illinois, George Ryan,
dealt the sharpest blow to the death penalty in 30 years by
granting clemency to 167 inmates on death row.
George Ryan, a conservative republican and formerly an enthusiastic
advocate of execution. He called the state's judicial system
"broken", "arbitrary and capricious" and
"racist". The blanket commutation followed an examination
of the state's capital punishment system that determined 13
prisoners on death row were innocent.
Aaron Patterson was one of four death row prisoners whom
Ryan pardoned. He received a $161,500 settlement for his faulty
conviction and has filed a $30 million federal suit against
police officers and others involved in his case. He will run
in the Democratic primary in March against a representative
from Chicago's southwest side, Patricia Bailey.
It's uncertain, however, whether Patterson will remain on
the ballot. He has lived in the 6th House District for only
six months after being released in January and state law requires
two years of residency to hold the office.
- Aaron Patterson, spent 17 years on Death Row in Illinois
after he was wrongly convicted in a 1986 murder of an elderly
couple. He was released earlier this year. On Monday he
announced plans to run for a seat in the Illinois State
House.
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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