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Hotbed of Resistance: An Iraqi Discusses Fallujah Violence
Three Mile Island: 25th Anniversary of The Worst Nuclear
Accident in U.S. History
Rwanda Ten Years Ago: How the World Stood Back and Watched
a Genocide
Exposed: Washington Ignored U.S. Intel Warning of Genocide
in Rwanda
Blackwater USA: Building the "Largest Private Army in
the World"
Hotbed of Resistance: An Iraqi Discusses Fallujah
Violence
A day after four U.S. military contractors were murdered
then mutilated in the streets of Fallujah we go to Baghdad
to speak with retired Iraqi engineer Ghazwan Al-Mukhtar about
mercenaries in Iraq and why Fallujah has become a hotbed of
the Iraqi resistance.
On Wednesday, four U.S. contractors were murdered and then
mutilated in the Iraqi city of Fallujah in one of the most
graphic attacks on U.S. interests since the invasion of Iraq.
And nearby five U.S. soldiers were killed in a separate attack.
In the attack on the contractors, news agencies captured
photos and images of their burnt corpses being dismembered
in the streets. Two of bodies were tied up under a bridge
and lynched over the Euphates. The others were dragged through
the streets behind cars and hacked to pieces.
The New York Times reports seeing a 10-year-old body stepping
on a burnt head screaming "Where is Bush? Let him come
here and see this!"
The incident came on the same day the total number of U.S.
soldiers killed in Iraq reached 600.
The four Americans killed on Wednesday all worked for the
firm Blackwater which routinely hires former soldiers often
ex-Navy Seals to form essentially a private army that largely
exists outside of the public eye.
It is unknown how many private U.S. contractors have been
killed though it has been reported the Army is relying on
private security companies more as the opposition to the occupation
intensifies.
There appears to have been no US effort to save the contractors
or even to collect the bodies until hours after the attack.
On Wednesday, the Coalition Provisional Authority's Web site
didn't even mention the attacks. One of the top headlines
on the website read, "Iraqi Police Equal to Task of Public
Safety"
Middle East analyst Juan Cole says the degree of hatred among
ordinary Iraqi toward Americans is bad news for the occupying
forces.
He writes, "It helps explain why so few of the Sunni
Arab guerrillas have been caught, since the locals hide and
help them. It also seems a little unlikely that further US
military action can do anything practical to put down this
insurgency; most actions it could take would simply inflame
the public against them all the more. It seems likely to me
that the guerrilla violence will continue for years."
- Ghazwan Al-Mukhtar, a retired Iraqi engineer speaking
from Baghdad.
Three Mile Island: 25th Anniversary of The Worst
Nuclear Accident in U.S. History
Twenty-five years ago this week, the Three Mile Island nuclear
reactor at Harrisburg, Pennsylvania malfunctioned, sparking
a meltdown that resulted in the release of radioactivity.
We speak with Susan Stranahan, the lead reporter for The Philadelphia
Inquirer's Pulitzer Prize winning coverage of the disaster.
It was the worst nuclear accident in US history. Twenty-five
years ago this week, the Three Mile Island nuclear reactor
at Harrisburg, Pennsylvania malfunctioned, sparking a meltdown
that resulted in the release of radioactivity. In the pre-dawn
hours of March 28, 1979, the cooling system of Three Mile
Island's Unit Two reactor malfunctioned, causing temperatures
inside to skyrocket.
Early that morning, pumps feeding cooling water to the plant's
reactor failed, and 32,000 gallons of radioactive, superheated
water spewed from a dodgy valve into the domed concrete reactor
housing. Without water to cool them, more than half of the
reactor's 36,000 nuclear fuel rods ruptured.
Lieutenant Governor William Scranton appeared on local TV
and warned residents to close their doors and windows and
urged them to stay inside. Harrisburg Mayor Stephen Reed said
the message to lock windows and stay indoors was akin to telling
everyone to evacuate. Some estimate that well over 100,000
people fled Harrisburg and the surrounding areas.
The evening of March 28, 1979, famed news anchor Walter Cronkite
opened his nightly newscast on CBS by calling the disaster
"the first step in a nuclear nightmare." For the
next four days, the nation and the world feared a full-scale
meltdown would follow.
The accident at Three Mile Island would quickly fuel the
nuclear debate in this country that rages to this day.
- Containment: Life after Three Mile Island, excerpt of
documentary produced by Nick Poppy and Chris Boebel.
- Susan Stranahan, lead reporter for The Philadelphia Inquirer's
Pulitzer Prize winning coverage of the Three Mile Island
accident. She now writes regularly on nuclear issues for
Mother Jones.
Rwanda Ten Years Ago: How the World Stood Back and
Watched a Genocide
Ten years ago Rwanda's extremist Hutu government and military
led a campaign to exterminate the nation's minority Tutsis.
Nearly a million people were slaughtered in an orchestrated,
pre-planned campaign of genocide. We take a look at how the
international community, the U.S. in particular, actively
worked to ensure there was no international intervention until
it was too late.
This month marks the 10th anniversary of the genocide in
Rwanda.
Ten years ago, on April 6, 1994, Rwanda's extremist Hutu
government and military led a campaign to exterminate the
nation's minority Tutsis.
An estimated 800,000 people were killed in three months of
tribal bloodletting. Men, women and children were slaughtered
in an orchestrated, pre-planned campaign of genocide not seen
since the Jewish Holocaust.
For 100 days the rampant killing continued throughout the
country. The machete became Rwanda's symbol of horror.
One much-practised strategy was to drive Tutsis into centers
such as churches and schools and then kill them en masse.
Stories abound of Tutsis being disabled by having a leg chopped
off and left on the ground to await the return of their killers.
Tutsis pleading to be put out of their misery quickly. Children
being slaughtered in front of their parents. Women being gang
raped, subjected to unspeakable acts before being killed.
The world claimed it was unaware of the magnitude of the
slaughter. The United Nations peacekeeping force stationed
in the country stood by helplessly and watched the massacre
unfold.
On a visit to the Rwandan capital, Kigali, in 1998 Clinton
apologized for not acting quickly enough or immediately calling
the crimes genocide. He said: "It may seem strange to
you here, especially the many of you who lost members of your
family, but all over the world there were people like me sitting
in offices, day after day after day, who did not fully appreciate
the depth and speed with which you were being engulfed by
this unimaginable terror."
But the international community, and the U.S. in particular,
are not just guilty of apathy. They had actively worked to
ensure there was no international intervention until it was
too late.
- Stephen Lewis, Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa.
He is the former Canadian Ambassador to the U.N. and a former
Unicef official. In 1997, he has appointed by the Organization
of African Unity to a Panel of Eminent Personalities to
Investigate the Genocide in Rwanda. The 'Rwanda Report'
was issued in June of 2000. It charged that the United States,
France and Belgium, as well as the Roman Catholic and Anglican
churches, actively prevented peacekeepers from moving in
to stop the genocide in Rwanda.
Exposed: Washington Ignored U.S. Intel Warning of
Genocide in Rwanda
The National Security Archive recently obtained declassified
U.S. intelligence reports that show the Clinton administration
knew as early as April 23, 1994 that the slaughter in Rwanda
amounted to genocide. Senior officials used the word genocide
in private but chose not to publicly to justify not intervening.
- William Ferreggiaro, consulting fellow at the National
Security Archive which recently obtained classified
US intelligence reports that concluded as early as April
23, 1994 that the slaughter in Rwanda amounted to a genocide.
He is a also a consultant to a new PBS Frontline documentary
about Rwanda entitled "Ghosts of Rwanda" premiering
tonight.
Blackwater USA: Building the "Largest Private
Army in the World"
On Wednesday, four U.S. contractors were brutally murdered
in Fallujah. They all worked for a private military contractor
firm called Blackwater, which has boosted that it wants to
build the largest private army in the world.
On Wednesday, four American contractors were brutally killed
in Fallujah. There bodies were beaten, dragged through the
streets and mutilated. Two of the corpses were hung from a
bridge over the Euphrates River.
It marked the most gruesome attack on U.S. interests captured
on film since the start of the US Invasion.
The four Americans who were killed worked for a private security
firm called Blackwater USA.
Blackwater is one of a growing number of for-profit companies
hired by the U.S. military to do work traditionally performed
by soldiers.
It was founded by 1997 by an ex-Navy Seal.
In August of last year, Blackwater was awarded a $21 million
no-bid contract to supply security guards and two helicopters
for Paul Bremer, the head of the U.S. occupation in Iraq.
The company also provides security for food shipments in the
Fallujah area.
According to the Knight Ridder news agency, at least 33 U.S.
civilian contractors have been killed in Iraq but the total
could be much higher because the deaths of contractors often
receive far less attention than the deaths of soldiers.
On Wednesday, the Coalition Provisional Authority's Web site
didn't even mention the attacks. One of the top headlines
on the website read "Iraqi Police Equal to Task of Public
Safety"
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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