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Massacre in Fallujah: Over 600 Dead, 1,000 Injured, 60,000
Refugees
Mass Antiwar Protests in Japan, Fate of Iraq Hostages Remains
Unclear
Hundreds of Corpses Fill Haiti Morgues
Palestinian Activist Ordered Released After Two Years in
Prison Without Charge
Massacre in Fallujah: Over 600 Dead, 1,000 Injured,
60,000 Refugees
The U.S. siege of Fallujah continues and reports are emerging
of a massacre of Iraqi civilians at the hands of U.S. troops.
We go to Iraq to get a report from Free Speech Radio News'
Aaron Glantz who interviews Iraqis fleeing Fallujah as well
as a producer with Al-Jazeera television who says he and fellow
journalists were targeted by U.S. snipers in the town.
The town of Fallujah is under siege and there are reports
of a massacre of Iraqis at the hands U.S. troops. The death
toll in the town has now topped 600 with over 1,000 injured.
Local hospitals reported the majority of the dead were women,
children and the elderly. The U.S. maintains 95 percent of
those killed were members of the resistance. This according
to the Guardian of London.
More than 60,000 women and children fled the city during
a brief ceasefire on Friday but the US blocked any men of
military age from leaving. Dozens of bodies have been buried
in the city's soccer stadium after US forces blocked roads
heading toward the cemetery.
The attack on Fallujah has galvanized major portions of the
Iraqi population against the U.S. Middle East blogger and
University of Michigan professor Juan Cole writes "There
is a danger that the vindictive attitude of the Americans
... will push the whole country to hate them. A hated occupier
is powerless even with all the firepower in the world."
We go now to Iraq for a report on Fallujah. Early this morning
we received this report from Aaron Glantz of Free Speech Radio
News.
- Aaron Glanzt, Free Speech Radio News. Report on Fallujah
filed from Baghdad.
Mass Antiwar Protests in Japan, Fate of Iraq Hostages
Remains Unclear
U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney arrived in Japan to lend
support to Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi for keeping troops
in Iraq despite threats to execute three Japanese hostages.
We go to Tokyo to speak with the international coordinator
of Peace Boat, a Japan-based NGO focusing on peace education
and advocacy.
As Vice President Dick Cheney visits Japan, thousands take
to the streets in Tokyo to protest the country's participation
in the Iraq occupation.
Vice President Dick Cheney was in Japan today where he told
Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi that he was doing
the right thing by resisting mounting political pressure and
keeping Japanese troops in Iraq despite shock over the kidnapping
of three Japanese civilians.
In Japan, the news of the hostages has been the country's
top story for much of the past week. Being held are an 18-year-old
who had traveled to Iraq to study the effects of depleted
uranium, a 32-year-old freelance journalist and a 34-year-old
aid worker. On Saturday, Al Jazeera recevied a faxed statement
that said the three hostages would be released within 24 hours
but they are still being held leading to increased calls for
Japan to pull its troops from Iraq. There have been large
demonstrations in Japan, protesting the country's participation
in the Iraq occupation.
- Ryo Ijichi, international coordinator of Peace Boat,
a Japan based NGO focusing on peace education and advocacy.
It was started by Japanese university students some 20 years
ago.
Hundreds of Corpses Fill Haiti Morgues
We speak with an attorney with the National Lawyers Guild
which recently sent a delegation to Haiti. He says he saw
hundreds of corpses being dumped by morgues in Haiti and describes
bodies coming in with plastic bags over their heads and hands
tied behind their backs, piles of corpses burning in fields
and pigs eating their flesh.
It has been a little over a month since Haitian President
Jean-Bertrand Aristide was ousted and a new U.S.-backed government
was installed in what Aristide has called a "modern-day
kidnapping in service of a coup."
U.S. troops were ordered to Haiti within one hour of President
Aristide's departure even though both President Bush and Secretary
of State Colin Powell had said they would not deploy more
forces there until there was a political solution. Despite
the 3,500 U.S.-led troops in the country, the battle for control
is still being waged in numerous Haitian towns.
The Jamaica Observer is reporting that gang leaders and paramilitaries
still control large swaths of northern Haiti, sometimes jailing
suspected criminals, sometimes persecuting Aristide supporters.
They patrol the streets, dispensing their own brand of justice,
arresting and jailing alleged criminals while hoping to eventually
become paid police officers or soldiers in a new Haitian army.
Louis Jodel Chamblain, convicted in absentia for the 1994
Raboteau massacre, spends much of his time in Cap Haitien.
Most of his men, 20 to 35 years old, have a new long-term
objective: to serve in a new version of the Haitian army.
Aristide abolished the army in 1995 as a coup-prone machine
responsible for human rights violations.
The National Lawyers Guild and several organizations denounced
the U.S. government for its role in the forced removal of
President Aristide. They demanded a Congressional investigation
into the role of the U.S. government in the deliberate destabilization
of the Haitian government and the implementation of the coup;
an immediate end to the repression and daily attacks on those
demanding the return of President Aristide; and support for
Haitian refugees.
The National Lawyers Guild recently sent a delegation to
Haiti to meet with victims and their families, witnesses and
grassroots leaders. Attorney Tom Griffin was part of that
delegation. He joins us on the phone from Philadelphia.
- Tom Griffin, part of a delegation sent by the National
Lawyers Guild to Haiti to meet with victims and their families,
witnesses and grassroots leaders.
Palestinian Activist Ordered Released After Two Years
in Prison Without Charge
A federal judge in Pennsylvania ordered the release of the
Palestinian New York activist Farouk Abdel-Muhti who had been
jailed since April 2002 even though he has never been charged
with a crime. Abdel-Muhti was a prominent activist in the
New York area and could often be heard on Pacifica station
WBAI. We speak with his lawyer and hear an April 2002 interview
with Abdel-Muhti just before his detention.
In Pennsylvania, a federal judge last week ordered the release
of prominent Palestinian New York activist Farouk Abdel-Muhti.
Abdel-Muhti has been jailed for almost two years even though
he has never been charged with a crime.
As a Palestinian who came to the U.S. four decades ago, Abdel-Muhti
argues he is "stateless" and has no country to which
he can be deported.
In April 2002, three New York police officers and an INS
agent, all in civilian dress, came to Abdel-Muhti's Queens
apartment without a warrant. They claimed they wanted to ask
Abdel-Muhti some questions about September 11th. They said
they believed there were weapons and explosives in the apartment.
When Farouk's roommate, Bernard McFall refused to open the
door, they threatened to break it down, entering without a
warrant.
But Abdel-Muhti wasn't at home because he was at an early
morning interview at Pacifica station WBAI-New York. He learned
of the raid from his son, Tarek, and his roommate, Bernard
McFall who works for the Environmental Protection Agency.
He was detained on April 26, 2002 and has been in jail in
various facilities ever since, often in solitary confinement,
subjected to extensive interrogation, and often been denied
food. His supporters consider him to be a political prisoner.
- Jeffrey Fogel, one of Farouk Abdel-Muhti's lawyers and
the legal director for the Center for Constitutional Rights.
- Farouk Abdel-Muhti, interviewed by Democracy Now! in
April 2002, right before being detained.
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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