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8:00-8:01 Billboard:
Election Year 2004: Why is the U.S. Refusing Iraqi Demands
For Immediate Direct Elections?
U.S. Journalist Quits Pentagon Iraqi Media Project Calling
it U.S. Propaganda
White House Seeks To Assert Total Control Over All Environmental
& Health Studies Warnings
British Peace Activist Shot By IDF in Gaza Dies in London
Hospital
Main Street USA – Voices From Across America
8:01-8:06 Headlines
8:06-8:07 One Minute Music Break
8:07-8:20 Election Year 2004: Why is the U.S. Refusing
Iraqi Demands For Immediate Direct Elections?
INTRO: The U.S. has rejected calls by Iraq's most senior
Shi'ite Muslim cleric for immediate direct elections in Iraq
instead planning indirect elections to form a transitional
assembly that would then form an interim Iraqi government.
We speak with Iraq blogger and University of Michigan professor
Juan Cole.
As the Iowa Caucus and New Hampshire primaries approach,
election season is entering full-swing. In November, U.S.
citizens will go to the polls to elect their president. But
in U.S.-occupied Iraq it’s a different story. Washington’s
policy there is to stifle the calls from Iraqis for immediate
direct elections.
Iraq's most senior Shi'ite Muslim cleric, Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani,
has repeatedly demanded a swift electoral process - one man
one vote - to determine a new Iraqi government. But the United
States has rejected the calls.
Washington wants to have indirect elections to form a transitional
Iraq assembly that would then form an interim government.
The Bush administration said yesterday it is reviewing how
the new government will be selected after Sistani warned of
increased political tensions and violence if direct elections
are not held within months.
But the U.S. has maintained a countrywide direct election
would be not be plausible before the June 30 deadline for
a political hand-over to Iraqis.
Top U.S. administrator in Iraq Paul Bremer told CNN last
night, “We're democrats to our very bones. We have been
practicing democracy for 200 years. Elections are always the
best way to select a representative government. The problem
we have is time."
- Juan Cole, is Professor of Modern Middle East and South
Asian History at the History Department of the University
of Michigan. He runs an analytical website called "Informed
Comment" in which he provides a daily round-up of news
and events in Iraq and elsewhere in the Arab world. The
address is www.juancole.com. Cole speaks fluent Arabic,
Persian and Urdu and has lived all over the Muslim world
for extended periods of time. He also continues to research
Iran and Shi`ite Islam, the subject of his Sacred Space
and Holy War. This book collects some of his work on the
history of the Shiite branch of Islam in modern Iraq and
the Gulf.
Link: www.juancole.com
8:20-8:21 One Minute Music Break
8:21-8:30 U.S. Journalist Quits Pentagon Iraqi Media
Project Calling it U.S. Propaganda
INTRO: We talk to a longtime TV producer about the massive
problems he saw in the new U.S.-funded Iraqi Media Network,
which he said became an "irrelevant mouthpiece for Coalition
Provisional Authority propaganda, managed news and mediocre
programs."
The U.S. has awarded a $96 million contract to a U.S. producer
of communications equipment, Harris Corp., to create a U.S.-funded
national media network in Iraq.
According to the head of Harris Corp, the Iraqi Media Network
will have 30 TV and radio transmitters, three broadcast studios,
and 12 bureaus around Iraq.
After U.S.-led troops ousted Saddam Hussein's regime in April,
the state-run broadcasters were seized. Since then, they have
been run by a U.S. defense contractor, Science Applications
International Corporation.
Its efforts have come under criticism by many Iraqis, unsatisfied
about its content.
We talk to a longtime TV producer, Don North, about the problems
he saw in the starting of the network. He recently wrote an
article for TelevisionWeek titled "Iraq Project Frustration:
One Newsman's Take On How Things Went Wrong"
- Don North, independent journalist and video producer
who went to Iraq to help form the Iraqi Media Network. He
recently wrote an article for TelevisionWeek titled "Iraq
Project Frustration: One Newsman's Take On How Things Went
Wrong"
Link: www.tvweek.com/topstorys/121503iraqproject.html
8:30-8:40 White House Seeks To Assert Total Control
Over All Environmental & Health Studies Warnings
INTRO: Tomorrow is the last day that federal agencies responsible
for public health, safety and the environment have to respond
to a controversial new proposal by the White House to strip
them of their authority to declare emergencies.
The administration’s plan calls for the White House
Office of Management and Budget to decide what and when the
public would be told about an outbreak of mad cow disease,
an anthrax release, a nuclear plant accident or any other
crisis. Perhaps more troubling to the scientific community,
the White House also wants to manage scientific and technical
evaluations - known as peer reviews - of all major government
rules, plans, proposed regulations and pronouncements. Under
the present system, each federal agency controls its emergency
notifications and peer review of its projects.
On Friday, a nonpartisan group of 20 former top agency officials
sent a letter to the OMB asking the White House agency to
withdraw its proposal, saying it "could damage the federal
system for protecting public health and the environment."
The letter was obtained by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Among
it’s signers were two former Environmental Protection
Agency administrators, a former secretary of labor, two former
heads of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration,
a former assistant labor secretary and 13 other former senior
officials of both political parties. The letter was also signed
by David Michaels, a former assistant secretary for environment,
safety and health at the Department of Energy.
- David Michaels, former assistant secretary for environment,
safety and health at the Department of Energy. He is now
a research professor at the George Washington University's
School of Public Health.
- William Kovacs, Vice President for Environment Technology
and Regulatory Affairs. He is the primary officer responsible
for developing U.S. Chamber policy on environment, energy,
natural resources, agriculture and food safety, regulatory,
and technology issues.
8:40-8:41 One Minute Music Break
8:41-8:53 British Peace Activist Shot By IDF in Gaza
Dies in London Hospital
INTRO: British peace activist Tom Hurndall died at the age
of 22 after spending eight months in a vegetative state. Charges
of aggravated assault were recently filed against the Israeli
soldier who shot Hurndall in the head in April.
In London, the 22-year-old British peace activist Tom Hurndall
died last night. In April, Hurndall was shot in the head by
Israel forces. He had spent the last eight months in a vegetative
state. Charges of aggravated assault were recently filed against
the Israeli soldier who shot Hurndall.
Haaetz is reporting the charges will likely be increased
to manslaughter now that Hurndall has died.
Hurndall’s mother said "We hope that prosecution
of the soldier involved in the shooting of Tom will send a
message to all soldiers in the occupied territories that they
cannot commit breaches of human rights whether these be killing,
maiming, humiliation, the destruction of homes or the collective
punishment of whole communities.”
- Carl Arrindell, Hurndall family spokesperson.
8:53-8:58 Main Street USA – Voices From Across
America
INTRO: Award-winning filmmaker Jon Alpert takes a cross-country
bus tour interviewing a cross-section of American opinion
on the invasion and occupation of Iraq, domestic issues and
more.
- Jon Alpert, filmmaker and founder of Downtown Community
Television center.
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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