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From: Democracy Now!
Re: Rundown 12-23-03
PRSS Channel: A67.7
8:00-8:01 Billboard:
Who Really Caught Saddam? Reporter Yvonne Ridley Says Kurdish
Forces Captured Saddam and Handed Him To U.S. Forces
Retired Air Force Col. Reveals How The U.S. Orchestrated
A Media and PSYOPS Campaign Following Saddam’s Capture
“Guilty of Being Palestinian” – Imprisoned
Student Describes Harsh Treatment By U.S. Forces In Iraq
8:01-8:06 Headlines
8:06-8:07 One Minute Music Break
8:07-8:45 Who Really Caught Saddam? Reporter Yvonne
Ridley Says Kurdish Forces Captured Saddam and Handed Him
To U.S. Forces
INTRO: We speak with journalist Yvonne Ridley who reported
in last weekend’s Sunday Express that Saddam Hussein
was actually captured by Kurdish forces who then drugged him
and abandoned him for U.S. troops to find after brokering
a deal. In 2001, Ridley was imprisoned for 10 days by the
Taliban while on assignment in Afghanistan.
On December 15th, the head of the U.S. occupation in Iraq,
Paul Bremer, held an early morning press conference. His first
words were “Ladies and Gentlemen, we got him.”
This was how millions of people around the world learned of
the capture of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.
U.S. forces said they captured Saddam at about 8:30 Saturday
night Iraq time after members of his extended family tipped
off interrogators as to his whereabouts.
A week after Bremer’s announcement, a different account
of Saddam’s capture has emerged.
An article in last weekend’s British Sunday Express,
says “The full story of the fallen dictator's capture
last Saturday in a "spider hole" near his birthplace
of Tikrit exposes the version peddled by American spin doctors
as incomplete.”
According to the Sunday Express, Saddam was actually captured
by Kurdish forces who then drugged him and abandoned him for
U.S. troops to find after brokering a deal. The article quotes
unnamed British and Iraqi military intelligence officers.
The Express also reports that secret talks are underway to
sentence Saddam to life imprisonment in Qatar after a “showcase
trial.”
We speak with the author of the article – freelance
veteran journalist Yvonne Ridley. She joins us on the phone
from Doha, Qatar.
- Yvonne Ridley, freelance journalist and author. Yvonne
Ridley is a veteran journalist who has written for various
British publications including The Observer and The Independent.
She left the full-time staff of Sunday Express in December
2001. She did some work for BBC radio in Afghanistan and
for Channel Five news in Iraq. She was recently fired amid
controversy from her editorial position at AlJazeera.net.
In September 2001, Yvonne Ridley was imprisoned for 10 days
by the Taliban in Afghanistan after being caught disguised
in a burqa on the back of a donkey while on assignment for
the Sunday Express. At the time, the Taliban had barred
entry to foreign correspondents. She has published a book
of her account entitled “In the Hands of the Taliban.”
Her latest book is “Ticket to Paradise,” a fiction,
due out in a couple of weeks.
Retired Air Force Col. Reveals How The U.S. Orchestrated
A Media and PSYOPS Campaign Following Saddam’s Capture
INTRO: Retired Air Force Colonel Sam Gardiner discusses
how the Bush administration used the press to conduct psychological
operations aimed at Iraqi resistance fighters in the days
following Saddam Hussein’s capture.
- Col. Sam Gardiner, retired Air Force Colonel. He has taught
strategy and military operations at the National War College,
AirWar College and Naval War College. He was recently a
visiting scholar at the Swedish Defense College.
8:45-8:58 “Guilty of Being Palestinian”
– Imprisoned Student Describes Harsh Treatment By U.S.
Forces In Iraq
INTRO: We speak with Fadi Elayyan, a Palestinian student
attending university in Baghdad when U.S. forces arrested
him and five of his friends in April. He was imprisoned for
two months without charge before being released.
As the U.S. occupation of Iraq extends into its ninth month
and into 2004, thousands of Iraqis and other Arabs languish
in U.S. jails across the country. In an effort to stem a mounting
Iraqi resistance to the occupation, U.S. forces have been
conducting mass detentions in cities and towns across Iraq.
The Pentagon recently reported the U.S. has arrested more
than 200 Iraqis based in part on intelligence gained from
Hussein’s capture.
Today we are going to take a look at the story of one man
who spent two months in an Iraqi jail after being detained
by U.S. forces. Fadi Elayyan is a Palestinian student who
was studying at the Mustansariya University in Baghdad when
the U.S. began its invasion of Iraq in March.
On April 10th, Fadi was arrested and imprisoned along with
five other friends by U.S. forces. Fadi and one of his friends,
Jihad Tahboub, were released in June. His four other friends
are still in prison.
- Fadi Elayyan, imprisoned for two months, without charge,
by US Occupying forces. He joins us on the phone from Amman,
Jordan.
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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