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8:00-8:01 Billboard:
Fallujah Refugees Describe Horrors of U.S. Siege
"Fear is Transmuting Into Anger" - Rahul Mahajan
Reports on Resistance in Iraq
EXCLUSIVE: Farouk Abdel-Muhti Set Free After Two Years in
Prison
8:01-8:06 Headlines
8:06-8:07 One Minute Music Break
8:07-8:20 Fallujah Refugees Describe Horrors of U.S.
Siege
INTRO: We get a report from Baghdad with Free Speech Radio
News' Aaron Glantz who speaks with Fallujah residents fleeing
the besieged town. They describe digging mass graves, snipers
and bombers killing people inside their homes, attacks on
ambulances and the increasing anger and resentment towards
U.S. occupying forces.
The new Intifada in Iraq has wrested control from the occupying
U.S. forces and thrown the country into chaos. U.S. soldiers
are coming under daily attack throughout Iraq and the number
killed since the beginning of the invasion has jumped to 665.
The number of Iraqis killed this month alone is much higher.
The streets are not safe for anyone with soldiers, military
contractors, journalists and aid workers alike at risk of
being attacked or kidnapped.
- Aaron Glantz, Free Speech Radio News. Report filed from
Baghdad.
8:20-8:21 One Minute Music Break
8:21-8:35 "Fear is Transmuting Into Anger"
- Rahul Mahajan Reports on Resistance in Iraq
INTRO: We speak with author and antiwar activist Rahul Mahajan
in Baghdad who was one of the only western reporters in Fallujah
during the U.S. siege. He says: "The United States has
completely lost control, and even the mildest of people are
now absolutely enraged at what is being done in Fallujah,
and want the United States out...anyone that didn't have a
gun today could pick up a gun tomorrow."
The situation in Iraq is dire. At least 60 U.S. troops have
been killed over the past week, the highest number of the
war, including the week of the invasion. Many more have been
wounded. There are no reliable estimates of the number of
Iraqi dead, but at least 800 have been reported killed in
the last week alone - the actual number is likely much higher.
The top U.S. commander in the Middle East General John Abizaid
is asking for the equivalent of two more combat brigades,
or as many as 10,000 troops to keep American forces in Iraq
at around 135,000.
Reports coming out of Fallujah indicate a massacre of some
600 Iraqis, including many women and children, at the hands
of U.S. troops. Meanwhile, 3,000 US troops are massing around
Najaf and US military commanders are talking about invading
the city and capturing or killing Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.
Kidnappings are now rampant throughout the country. 9 Americans,
including 2 soldiers are being held hostage in Iraq and six
employees of Halliburton are missing. Three Russians and five
Ukranians who were taken hostage yesterday were released earlier
today. The three Japanese civilians taken last week remain
hostages. Danish NGOs are leaving, and it seems likely that
most civilian aid workers will now flee the country, setting
back reconstruction immeasurably.
Meanwhile, at a press conference with Egyptian President
Hosni Mubarak, President Bush responded to reporters' questions
on the situation in Iraq.
- President Bush, Press Briefing, April 12, 2004.
- Rahul Mahajan, author of "Full Spectrum Dominance:
U.S. Power in Iraq and Beyond" (Seven Stories). He
is running a new blog called Empire Notes at empirenotes.org.
He has a Ph.D. in particle physics.
8:35-8:40 EXCLUSIVE: Farouk Abdel-Muhti Set Free
After Two Years in Prison
INTRO: Palestinian activist Farouk Abdel-Muhti was released
from jail Monday night nearly two years after he was detained
by U.S. immigration officials. He was never charged with a
crime. In a national exclusive, Democracy Now! speaks with
Abdel-Muhti in his first interview as a free man. He discusses
his release, his struggle for freedom and the conditions of
his detention which included 8-months of 23-hour lockdown
in solitary confinement.
Prominent New York Palestinian activist Farouk Abdel-Muhti
was released Thursday and returned home nearly two years after
he was detained by U.S. immigration officals. He has never
been charged with a crime.
A Pennsylvania federal judge last week ordered his release.
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 jailed in various facilities
ever since, often in solitary confinement, subjected to extensive
interrogation, and often been denied food. His supporters
considered him to be a political prisoner. As a Palestinian
who came to the U.S. four decades ago, Abdel-Muhti argued
he is "stateless" and has no country to which he
can be deported.
8:40-8:41 One Minute Music Break
8:41-8:58 Farouk Abdel Muhti 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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