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U.S. Risks Alienating Millions Across Muslim World with Major
Attack on Holy City of Najaf
Polarized Venezuela Prepares to Vote on Chavez Recall
Ryan Matthews is Free: Death Row Prisoner Convicted as Juvenile
Exonerated After 5 Yrs in Jail
U.S. Risks Alienating Millions Across Muslim World
with Major Attack on Holy City of Najaf
Thousands of U.S. troops have launched a major attack on
the Iraqi city of Najaf, one of the holiest cities in the
Muslim world. We go to Iraq to get a report on the latest
fighting and we speak with professor As'ad AbuKhalil about
the U.S. assault on one of the holiest cities in the Muslim
world. [includes rush
transcript]
Thousands of U.S. troops have launched a major offensive
in the Iraqi city of Najaf vowing to defeat a week-long uprising
by supporters of Shiite cleric Moqtada al Sadr.
Tanks backed by helicopter gunships moved to seal off the
revered Imam Ali Shrine in the centre of the city on Thursday.
Aircraft and artillery pounded the city's historic cemetery
where militiamen have taken up positions in recent days.
Fierce fighting erupted in Najaf on Aug. 5 between U.S. troops
and militants of Sadr's Mahdi army. U.S. commanders accused
the militia of launching attacks from the cemetery and swept
though it, killing hundreds, according to the military. Sadr's
forces put the death toll only in the dozens. Five U.S. troops
have also been killed, along with about 20 Iraqi officers.
The latest clashes broke out in the early morning today in
Iraq as US forces launched the offensive after initially calling
it off last night. The New York Times reports the U.S. has
tripled its force around the city to some 5,000 troops. There
are also a few hundred Iraqi soldiers. Using loudspeakers,
troops have been warning residents to leave the area saying
"To the residents of Najaf: Coalition forces are purging
the city from Mahdi Army." This according to USA Today.
Thousands have fled the city. Sadr has called on his followers
to keep fighting, even if he himself is captured or killed.
In what could prove to be a dangerous escalation of the conflict,
the US is saying that marines have been given permission by
the Najaf governor to enter the shrine of Imam Ali to launch
an attack. Iraq's interim deputy prime-minister Ibrahim Jaafari
earlier called on the US to pull out of Najaf completely.
The thousand year-old mosque of Imam Ali and its nearby cemetery
where hundreds of thousands of Muslims are buried is one of
the holiest sites the Muslim world. Shiite leaders around
the world, including Iran's top cleric, have condemned the
U.S. presence in Najaf and warned against hitting the mosque.
One Shiite told the Los Angeles Times "Any attack on
that city will destroy America's future in Iraq completely.
It will completely discredit America and make it the new tyrant
in the eyes of Shias worldwide."
- Donald MacIntyre, correspondent for the London Independent.
He joins us on the phone from Baghdad. He is headed to Najaf
today.
- 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, his latest
is The Battle for Saudi Arabia: Royalty, Fundamentalism,
and Global Power. He runs a new blog called "The
Angry Arab News Service."
Polarized Venezuela Prepares to Vote on Chavez Recall
As millions of voters in Venezuela head to the polls Sunday
to vote on whether to recall President Hugo Chavez from office
we host a debate between Martin Sanchez, the editor of a grassroots
website for Chavez supporters and Jorge Combellas, the U.S.
coordinator for the recall referendum on Chavez. [includes
rush
transcript]
Opponents of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez say they will
only accept the results of this weekends recall referendum
if international organizations acting as observers approve
them.
Millions of voters in Venezuela will head to the polls Sunday
to vote on whether to recall Chavez from office. Last month
the National Electoral Council announced opponents of Chavez
had gathered enough signatures to force a recall. If he is
defeated in the referendum, presidential elections will be
held within 30 days.
But some recent polls say Chavez will likely survive the
recall vote Sunday. One Bush administration official said
"He's definitely got momentum on his side" and admitted
that Washington is unlikely to be happy with the outcome.
This according to the Inter Press Service.
U.S.-Venezuela relations have turned sour ever since Chavez
was elected president in 1998, In heated speeches, Chavez
has condemned the U.S. invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan and
threatened to cut off oil sales to the United States.
Since then, more than $1 million in U.S. government money
has been given to Venezuelan opposition groups for democracy-training
programs under the auspices of the National Endowment for
Democracy - a private agency funded entirely by the U.S. government.
$54,000 of those funds have gone to the group that gathered
the signatures that led to Sunday's referendum.
Chavez supporters have complained that the United States
is meddling in Venezuelan affairs, and the vote. Supporters
have also criticized the U.S. for supporting a coup attempt
in April 2002. Chavez was removed from power by a coalition
of military officials and business leaders but returned to
office two days later.
- Martin Sanchez, editor of Aporrea.org,
main grassroots website for Chavez supporters and co-editor
of the news site Venezuelanalysis.com.
He joins us on the phone from Caracas.
- Jorge Combellas, editor of the opposition website 11abril.com
and the U.S. coordinator for the referendum to recall President
Chavez
Ryan Matthews is Free: Death Row Prisoner Convicted
as Juvenile Exonerated After 5 Yrs in Jail
Ryan Matthews, 24, was released from house arrest Monday
after a Louisiana court exonerated him of a 1999 murder charge.
Matthews was 17 when the 1997 murder of a grocery store owner
took place and has served 5 years in prison after being convicted
based on questionable eye-witness testimony. We speak with
his mother Pauline Matthews and his lawyer Billy Sothern.
[includes rush
transcript]
A Louisiana court released 24-year-old Ryan Matthews from
house arrest on Monday after exonerating him of a 1999 murder
charge. Matthews was 17 when the 1997 murder of a grocery
store owner took place and has served 5 years in prison. He
was convicted based on questionable eye-witness testimony
even though his DNA did not match that on a ski mask worn
by the murderer and found at the scene. The mask was retested
after Matthews' lawyers heard in 2003 that a convicted murderer,
Rondell Love, had bragged to fellow inmates in a Louisiana
state prison that he had committed the murder.
Five new DNA tests demonstrated that Matthews had no connection
to the murder. Matthews had been under house arrest since
April on a $105,000 bond. On Monday, Jefferson Parish District
Attorney Paul Connick asked District Court Judge Henry Sullivan
to vacate the bond.
Matthews is the 115th death row inmate to be exonerated in
the past 25 years and the seventh cleared in Louisiana since
1981 -- one of three who had been sentenced to death for crimes
allegedly committed while they were juveniles. Last month,
the American Bar Association and dozens of other groups, including
48 nations, filed amicus briefs in the U.S. Supreme Court
case Roper v. Simmons arguing that juvenile offenders do not
have the "heightened moral culpability that the Supreme
Court requires for the imposition of the death penalty."
The Supreme Court has not considered the applicability of
the death penalty to juveniles for 15 years.
- Pauline Matthews, Mother of Ryan Matthews
- Billy Sothern, Lawyer for Ryan Matthews
- Emily Kunstler, filmmaker, just returned from Louisiana
where she filmed Ryan Matthews release.
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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