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8:00-8:01 Billboard:
Iraq Intifada: U.S. Faces New Resistance Front As Shiites
Join Armed Uprising
Worse Than Watergate: Former Nixon Counsel John Dean Says
Bush Should Be Impeached
8:01-8:08 Headlines
8:08-8:09 One Minute Music Break
8:09-8:23 Iraq Intifada: U.S. Faces New Resistance
Front As Shiites Join Armed Uprising
INTRO: The U.S. is facing a nightmare scenario in Iraq, fighting
on two fronts against both Sunni and Shia militants after
Shiite Iraqis staged an armed uprising against occupying forces
this past Sunday. We go to Baghdad to speak with independent
journalist and author Naomi Klein and we speak with Middle
East expert Professor As’ad AbuKhalil.
The Bush administration is facing a nightmare scenario in
Iraq, fighting on two fronts against both Sunni and Shia militants.
The center of armed resistance to the U.S.-led occupation
has predominantly come from Sunni-dominated areas. But the
U.S. occupation entered a new phase this past Sunday as Shiite
Iraqis staged an armed uprising against the occupying forces
in four cities.
A total of at least 50 Iraqis and 10 U.S. troops died Sunday.
Hundreds were injured. Up to 30 Iraqis were killed in clashes
in the Sadr-City suburb of Baghdad alone, the worst the capital
has seen since its fall to U.S. troops a year ago.
American officials yesterday announced an arrest warrant
for the young Shiite cleric, Moqtada al-Sadr, who called for
the uprising after the U.S. forces shut down one of his newspapers
and arrested one of his top aides.
The new resistance front comes less than three months before
the U.S. is due to hand over power to an Iraqi government.
Paul Bremer, Iraq’s top US administrator, cancelled
a visit to Washington to deal with the crisis and military
commander, General John Abizaid, was considering the reinforcement
of his 105,000-strong army of occupation. The Guardian of
London reports that Gen. Abizaid gave 48 hours to come up
with ideas on where fresh troops, American or allied, could
be found.
In the face of two resistance fronts, the U.S. has opted
for a high-risk strategy of attempting to crush both of them
simultaneously.
U.S. forces yesterday used Apache gunships to attack targets
in Baghdad for the first time since the fall of the Saddam
Hussein regime, opening fire over the Shia neighborhood of
Shulla.
Meanwhile, a force of some 1,300 US marines and Iraqi troops
began moving into the Sunni-dominated town of Fallujah. The
town has been sealed off but witnesses speak of shelling and
blasts and the use of helicopter gunships. This according
to the BBC. The US has vowed to "pacify" Fallujah,
after four US mercenaries were killed, torched and dismembered
last week.
Meanwhile back in Washington, President Bush repeated the
White House line saying, "The message to the Iraqi citizens
is they don't have to fear that America will turn and run,
and that's an important message for them to hear."
- Naomi Klein, award-winning journalist and author of Fences
and Windows: Dispatches From the Front Lines of the Globalization
Debate and No Logo: Taking Aim at the Brand Bullies. She
joins us on the phone from Baghdad.
- As'ad AbuKhalil, professor of political science at California
State University, Stanislaus and visiting professor at UC,
Berkeley. He is the author of several books including Bin
Laden, Islam, and America's New War on Terrorism. He runs
a new blog called "The Angry Arab News Service"
at angryarab.blogspot.com.
8:23-8:24 One Minute Music Break
8:24-8:40 Worse Than Watergate: Former Nixon Counsel
John Dean Says Bush Should Be Impeached
INTRO: Richard Nixon's former counsel John Dean joins us
in our firehouse studios to discuss his new book "Worse
Than Watergate: The Secret Presidency of George W. Bush"
in which he charges that the crimes of President Bush are
worse than his previous boss and are grounds for impeachment.
Dean served prison time for his role in the Watergate scandal
in the early 70s.
On June 17, 1972, five men employed by the Committee to Re-elect
the President (later known as CREEP) were arrested while breaking
into the Democratic National Headquarters at the Watergate
Hotel. They went in to plant listening devices in the phone
and steal campaign strategy documents.
The White House attempted to cover-up the burglary. Among
those found guilty was Richard Nixon’s chief counsel
John W. Dean.
Dean began his political life at the age of 29 as the Republican
counsel on the House Judiciary Committee before being recruited
by Richard Nixon when he was just 31. He served as Nixon’s
White House lawyer for the last 1,000 days.
G. Gordon Liddy, the former FBI agent who masterminded the
Watergate burglary on behalf of Nixon, once said that he would
like to kill John Dean by shoving a pencil through his neck.
Why? Because Dean is the one who dared tell Nixon in 1973
that the web of lies surrounding the Watergate scandal had
formed "a cancer on the presidency." When Dean went
public about that conversation, the Nixon White House smeared
him as a liar. Fortunately, the conversation had been taped,
and Dean was vindicated.
Dean agreed to testify to Congress that Nixon was guilty
of covering up Watergate, even though he was certain to condemn
himself to prison. Dean was later charged with obstruction
of justice and would eventually serve 127 days for taking
part in the cover-up.
Dean is charging in a new book out this week Worse Than Watergate:
The Secret Presidency of George W. Bush that the crimes of
President Bush are worse than his previous boss and are grounds
for impeachment.
He joins us in our studios today. Before we speak with him,
we hear an excerpt of Senator Ted Kennedy speaking at the
Brookings Institution yesterday afternoon.
- John Dean, author of the new book Worse Than Watergate:
The Secret Presidency of George W. Bush. He served as counsel
to President Nixon.
8:40-8:41 One Minute Music Break
8:41-8:58 Worse Than Watergate CONT’D
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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