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Iraqi Resistance Launches Coordinated Uprising, 70 Dead;
Christian Parenti Reports From Baquba
Paying the Price: The Mounting Costs of the Iraq War
Propping Up the House of Saud: A Saudi Dissident Speaks
Noam Chomsky on John Negroponte's Career From the Death Squads
of Honduras to the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad
Gov't Accuses Lawyer Lynne Stewart Of Role in International
Terrorist Conspiracy
Iraqi Resistance Launches Coordinated Uprising, 70
Dead; Christian Parenti Reports From Baquba
At least 70 people have died and 270 have been injured in
Iraq after members of the Iraqi resistance staged a coordinated
pre-dawn uprising in five cities and towns today. Most of
the attacks targeted U.S.-backed Iraqi security forces in
Mosul, Baghdad, Baquba, Ramadi and Fallujah.
The worst violence was in the northern city of Mosul where
at least 40 people died and 60 were injured.
In Fallujah a U.S. Cobra helicopter was shot down. The U.S.
bombed portions of Fallujah and Baquba. At least three U.S.
soldiers also died today.
The coordinated uprising comes less than a week before the
scheduled so-called handover of power to Iraq.
The attacks also come one day after Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi
vowed to assassinate Iraq's selected prime minister Iyad Allawi.
Zarqawi is a Jordanian who the U.S. claims has ties to Al
Qaeda and is leading the Iraqi resistance.
We go now to Baquba for a report from journalist Christian
Parenti.
Paying the Price: The Mounting Costs of the Iraq
War
We talk to Phyllis Bennis of the Institute for Policy Studies
on a new report examining the costs of the Iraq invasion.
The Institute for Policy Studies and Foreign Policy In Focus
just released a new study titled "PAYING THE PRICE: The
Mounting Costs of the Iraq War" that examines the costs
of the war and occupation in terms of lives, the increased
military budget demands and the stripping of the domestic
budget.
We are joined by the study's author Phyllis Bennis. Among
the report's findings:
- Total number of coalition military deaths between the
start of war and June 16, 2004: 952 (853 U.S.)
- Of those 952, the number killed after President George
W. Bush declared "an end to combat operations"
on May 1, 2003: 693
- Number of U.S. troops wounded since the war began: 5,134
- Number of U.S. troops wounded since President George
W. Bush declared "an end to combat operations"
on May 1, 2003: 4,593
- Number of civilian contractors, missionaries, and civilian
workers killed: 50-90
- Number of international media workers killed in Iraq:
30 (21 since the "end of combat operations")
- Iraqi civilians killed: 9,436 to 11,317
- Iraqi civilians injured: 40,000 (est.)
- Iraqi soldiers and insurgents killed prior to "end
of combat operations" May 1, 2003: 4,895 to 6,370
- The bill so far: $126.1 billion
- Additional amount to cover operations through 2004: $25
billion
- What $151 billion could have paid for in the U.S.: Housing
vouchers: 23 million
- Health care for uninsured Americans: 27 mil.
- Salaries for elementary school teachers: 3 mil.
- New fire engines: 678,200
- Head Start slots: 20 million
- Estimated long-term cost of war to every U.S. household:
$3,415
- Amount contractor Halliburton is alleged to have charged
for meals never served to troops and for cost overruns on
fuel deliveries: $221 million
- Kickbacks received by Halliburton employees from subcontractors:
$6 million
- Percentage of Americans who now feel that "the situation
in Iraq was not worth going to war over.": 54
- Percentage of Iraqis who said they would feel safer if
U.S. and other foreign troops left the country immediately:
55
- Percentage of U.S. soldiers in Iraq reporting low morale:
52
- Percentage of soldiers who said they would not re- enlist:
50
- Percentage of wounded unable to return to duty: 64
- Number of soldiers whose tours of duty have been extended
by the Army: 20,000
- Percentage of reserve troops who earn lower salaries
while on deployment: 30-40
- Fraction of National Guard troops among U.S. force now
in Iraq: 1/3
- Percentage of U.S. police departments missing officers
due to Iraq deployments: 44
- Effect on al Qaeda of the Iraq war, according to International
Institute for Strategic Studies: "Accelerated recruitment"
- Estimated number of al Qaeda terrorists as of May 2004:
18,000 with 1,000 active in Iraq
- Percentage of Iraqis expressing "no confidence"
in U.S. civilian authorities or coalition forces: 80
- Iraq's oil production in 2002: 2.04 mil. barrels/day
- Iraq's oil production in 2003: 1.33 mil. barrels/day
- Price of a gallon of gasoline in the U.S. in May 2004:
more than $2
The full report is online
here
Propping Up the House of Saud: A Saudi Dissident
Speaks
Our guest Mai Yamani says, "It would be wrong to predict
any immediate collapse of the state. Despite a marked cooling
in relations, Saudi Arabia remains the key ally of the US
in the region. With continuing violence in Iraq, Washington"s
priority is to prevent Saudi Arabia descending into similar
anarchy, even if it means propping up a regime it no longer
likes or trusts."
Following a recent spate of attacks against US citizens and
corporations in Saudi Arabia, the kingdom announced a limited
amnesty offer yesterday to militants who turn themselves in
within the next month. Those who have never taken part in
attacks apparently won't be prosecuted. The announcement came
in an address by Crown Prince Abdullah broadcast across Saudi
Arabia and the Arab world. He said the government was offering
a chance for militants to "repent, plead guilty and voluntarily
surrender." Prince Abdullah added that those who did
not would "face a resolute force."
Over the past two months, Saudi Arabia has become a major
frontline of resistance against the US presence in the region.
Last week, Lockheed Martin employ Paul Johnson was beheaded
and statements broadcast on an al Qaeda website claimed that
sympathizers within the Saudi military helped facilitate his
kidnapping. Johnson worked on Lockheed"s production of
Apache helicopters. He was one of 3 American contractors killed
in Saudi Arabia over the past two weeks. Over the past year,
militants have also targeted US companies like the Vinnell
Corporation, a private military firm which trained the feared
Saudi National Guard. Last May, a triple car bombing in Saudi
Arabia killed 34 people, including 8 Americans at a housing
compound used by Vinnell.
Meanwhile, Al Qaeda has appointed a former Saudi security
officer named Saleh Mohamed Al-Oufi to head the organization
in the kingdom following the killing of Abdul Aziz al-Muqrin
last Friday. A cousin of the new Al Qaeda leader was allegedly
one of the 19 Sept. 11 hijackers.
But as our next guest writes "It would be wrong to predict
any immediate collapse of the state. Despite a marked cooling
in relations, Saudi Arabia remains the key ally of the US
in the region. With continuing violence in Iraq, Washington"s
priority is to prevent Saudi Arabia descending into similar
anarchy, even if it means propping up a regime it no longer
likes or trusts....While oil prices remain exceptionally high
and with a US presidential election in November, Saudi Arabia
is the pump that cannot be allowed to run dry."
Those are the words of Mai Yamani in a article published
in the Guardian entitled "Washington will prop up the
House of Saud - for now." Mai Yamani is an associate
fellow at the Royal Institute of International Affairs and
author of the forthcoming book "Cradle of Islam: the
Hijazi Quest for an Arabian Identity." Her previous books
include "Feminism and Islam." She is also the daughter
of former Saudi Oil Minister Ahmad Zaki Yamani. Mai Yamani
joins us on the line from London.
- Mai Yamani , is an associate fellow at the Royal Institute
of International Affairs and author of the forthcoming book
Cradle of Islam: the Hijazi Quest for an Arabian Identity.
Her previous books include Feminism and Islam. Her latest
article published by The Guardian of London is called "Washington
will prop up the House of Saud - for now." She is also
the daughter of former Saudi Oil Minister Ahmad Zaki Yamani.
Noam Chomsky on John Negroponte's Career From the
Death Squads of Honduras to the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad.
John Negroponte was sworn in as the new U.S. ambassador
to Iraq on Wednesday. We hear from MIT Professor Noam Chomsky
on Negroponte's time in Honduras. As ambassador, he played
a key role in US aid to the Contra death squads in Nicaragua
and shoring up the brutal military dictatorship of General
Gustavo Alvarez Martínez in Honduras.
Negroponte is due to arrive in Baghdad at the beginning of
July soon after the so-called transfer of sovereignty. He
will preside over the largest US embassy in the world, manned
by thousands of employees, fortified within the Green Zone.
Baghdad will be his fifth post, including his most recent
assignment as the U.S. representative at the United Nations.
The Senate approved Negroponte to the Iraq appointment in
record time, holding his confirmation hearing just eight days
after he was nominated and approving him soon after.
After being sworn in, Negroponte addressed Secretary of State
Colin Powell:
- John Negroponte, newly-appointed Ambassador to Iraq
At the ceremony yesterday, Secretary of State Powell called
Negroponte a "pillar of confidence and courage"
but his record as ambassador to Honduras tells a different
story. From 1981 to 1985 he earned a reputation for supporting
widespread human rights abuses and campaigns of terror in
Honduras. As ambassador, Negroponte played a key role in US
aid to the Contra death squads in Nicaragua and shoring up
the brutal military dictatorship of General Gustavo Alvarez
Martínez in Honduras.
Days after President Bush appointed Negroponte to the US
embassy in Baghdad, MIT Linguistics professor Noam Chomsky
spoke about Negroponte at a forum in Cambridge. He begins
by referring to a Washington Post article from late April.
- Noam Chomsky, speaking in Cambridge, MA on April 29,
2004
Gov't Accuses Lawyer Lynne Stewart Of Role in International
Terrorist Conspiracy
The Justice Department accuses the New York attorney and
her two co-defendants of an unusual 'jail break' involving
Stewart's client, Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman. The government
doesn't accuse them of trying to free the sheik but of freeing
his message out of jail by helping him to communicate with
his followers in Egypt. "Demon Beasts Behead Again"
That was the banner headline stretching across two pages
of the New York Post yesterday.
Underneath there were three photos:
- suspected Al Qaeda leader Abu Zarqawi
- masked Iraqi gunmen preparing to behead Kim Sun-Il of
South Korea
- and New York civil rights attorney Lynne Stewart. Next
to Stewart's photo read another headline: "Evil Sheik's
jihad lawyer poses threat worldwide, feds charge"
Besides these pages of the New York Post, Lynne Stewart has
never been connected to the Iraqi resistance but she is at
the center of one of the country's most-watched trials connected
to the so-called war on terror.
On Tuesday, the government's trial against Stewart began
in the same New York federal courthouse where the Rosenbergs
were tried for conspiracy to commit espionage more than a
half century ago.
The government is accusing Stewart of being part of an international
conspiracy to provide support to terrorists, to conspiring
to defraud the United States and making false statements.
Stewart is being tried with two co-defendants, the Arabic
translator Mohammed Yousry and a Staten Island resident Ahmed
Abdel Sattar. But so far the focus of the trial has been less
on any of the defendants but a man already in jail, the Sheik
Omar Abdel Rahman, also known as the blind sheikh who is serving
a life sentence on terror-related charges.
While he is still in jail, the government is accusing the
sheikh's attorney Stewart and her two co-defendants of essentially
carrying out a jail break - not by freeing the sheikh, but
by freeing his messages out of his jail cell.
Federal prosecutor Christopher Morvillo told jurors on Tuesday
"This is a case about a jail break. Not your typical
jail break where a prisoner is freed to once again walk the
streets. It is a different type of jail break but one that
the evidence will show was equally as dangerous."
The government claims the three conspired to sneak messages
into the sheikh and then to sneak his words out. Most notably
the government claims the three conspired to release a press
release announcing that the sheik no longer supported a cease
fire in 2000 between the militant Islamic Group and the Egyptian
government.
Morvillo told jurors on Tuesday, "His words and speeches
were as dangerous as weapons."
The government's case appears to be largely built on audio
and video tapes secretly recorded of meetings between Stewart
and her client as well as the home phone of Ahmed Abdel Sattar.
The government is also charging Stewart with making false
statements because she reneged on her agreement to abide to
what is known as SAMS - special administrative measures -
that were put in place by the government to keep the blind
sheikh in isolation. Under the terms of the SAMS, Stewart
was prohibited from passing on messages of the blind sheik.
Stewart is being defended by the acclaimed attorney Michael
Tigar who is best known for representing Terry Nichols during
the Oklahoma City bombing case.
Tigar told jurors on Tuesday, "Lynne Stewart did not,
would not, issue anything that the she thought was a terrorist
message or a call to arms. Lynne Stewart is a compassionate,
skilled and brave lawyer."
Well we are joined now by Lynne
Stewart in our studio.
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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