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Death Toll in Iraq Tops 1,000
RNC Aftermath: A Look at Undercover Cops, Preemptive Detention
and Police Surveillance
Trial Set to Begin Over Use of Pepper Spray-Soaked Cotton
Swabs on Non-Violent Protesters in 1997
U.S. Revokes Visa to One of Europe's Most Influential Islamic
Thinkers
U.S. Death Toll in Iraq Tops 1,000
The number of Americans killed in Iraq topped 1,000 amid
fierce fighting over the past two days. The number of Iraqis
killed over the past 18 months is unknown. We go to Baghdad
to speak journalist Patrick Cockburn of the London Independent.
The number of Americans killed in Iraq topped 1,000 yesterday
as at least 15 U.S. troops died in fierce fighting over the
past two days. The grim milestone was reached 18 months after
the US launched its invasion of Iraq early last year. Around
half of those killed were between 18 and 24 years old, according
to Pentagon statistics citied by Agence France Presse.
All but 140 of the 1,000 deaths have come since May 1st 2003,
when President Bush declared an end to major combat operations
under a banner reading "Mission Accomplished".
Donald Rumsfeld sought to play down the impact of the symbolic
figure, telling reporters at the Pentagon yesterday that the
"civilized world" had long passed the 1,000th death
at the hands of terrorists. He cited the 3,000 deaths during
the Sept. 11 attacks, and the hundreds who died in the school
siege in southern Russia last weekend.
The number of Iraqis killed since March 2003 is unknown.
The website Iraq Body Count estimates at least 11,800 Iraqi
civilians have been killed but some estimates put the Iraqi
civilian death toll three times as high.
- Patrick Cockburn, journalist with the London Independent.
He joins us on the phone from Baghdad.
RNC Aftermath: A Look at Undercover Cops, Preemptive
Detention and Police Surveillance
The Republican National Convention has wrapped up, but discussion
rages on about some of the tactics the NYPD used in its security
operations for the week. We speak with two lawyers working
on cases stemming from RNC protests.
The Republican National Convention has wrapped up, but discussion
rages on about some of the tactics the New York Police Department
used in its security operations for the week. During the convention,
the NYPD operated with a budget of $60 million, which is larger
than all but 19 of the world's standing armies. And they were
certainly not alone. In lower Manhattan, the Multi-Agency
Command Center, or MACC, was the security "nerve center,"
-- with some 66 separate city, state and federal agencies
coordinating their work.
While the police have declared last week a success, there
were a number of incidents and tactics that have come under
heavy fire from civil liberties advocates and legal groups.
In a moment, we will be joined by two lawyers working on cases
stemming from last week's protests. But first, we get the
perspective from the police. On the last night of the RNC,
I had a chance to talk with Deputy Police Chief Michael Collins.
Here is some of what he had to say.
- Michael Collins, NYPD Deputy Police Chief interviewed
on September 2, 2004 outside Madison Square Garden.
- Donna Lieberman, Executive Director of the NYCLU,
the New York chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union.
Trial Set to Begin Over Use of Pepper Spray-Soaked
Cotton Swabs on Non-Violent Protesters in 1997
Seven years after Humboldt County police officers applied
cotton swabs soaked in pepper spray to the eyes of activists
engaged in non-violent protests, a trial beings today charging
the tactic was an excessive use of force that amounted to
torture. We play an excerpt of the police video and speak
with the lead counsel on the case and one of the plaintiffs
who was 17 years-old at the time of the incident.
On three separate occasions in a three-week span in the fall
of 1997, Humboldt County police officers arrived at peaceful
sit-in protests calling for the protection of Headwaters Forest
in northern California.
On all three occasions, the activists - who ranged in age
from 16 to 40 years-old - locked their arms in metal pipes
to participate in a non-violent protest of logging practices.
And on all three occasions, the police responded using a method
that Amnesty International would later deem "tantamount
to torture."
One by one, police officers forcibly seized the heads of
each demonstrator and inserted cotton swabs saturated with
the chemical agent pepper spray into their eyes. In two of
the cases, officers also sprayed the substance directly into
their eyes at close range.
The eight activists filed a civil rights lawsuit against
Humboldt County later that month. In connection with the suit,
police video-tapes of the pepper spraying were released to
the public. When excerpts of the tapes aired on network television
news, the graphic images drew international outrage and condemnation.
The case went to court in 1998, but the trial ended in a
hung jury. Over the following years, challenges were made
at the state, appeals court and US Supreme Court levels. Today
the civil rights case of the "Pepper Spray Eight"
returns to trial in San Francisco.
To talk about this case, we are joined on the phone from
San Francisco by the lead counsel in the lawsuit, Dennis Cunningham
and one of the plaintiffs in the case, Spring Lundberg. Before
we speak to them, we go back seven years to the morning of
September 25, 1997 where Spring and other activists were engaging
in a sit-in protest at Pacific Lumber's offices, in Scotia,
California. The police arrived on the scene. This is what
happened.
- Video of Humboldt County police officers using pepper
spray-soaked cotton swabs on activists at a protest at Pacific
Lumber's offices, in Scotia, California on September 25,
1997.
- Excerpt from the documentary "Fire in the Eyes,"
Courtesy Headwaters
Action Video Collective.
- Dennis Cunningham, San Francisco civil rights and criminal
defense attorney who is lead counsel in the case. He represented
Earth First! activists Judi Bari and Darryl Cherney in their
victorious civil rights lawsuit against the FBI and the
Oakland Police Department in June 2002.
- Spring Lundberg, one the eight plaintiffs in the case
against Humboldt County. She was 17 years-old at the time.
She is a musician, writer and activist on issues of corporate
globalization and ecology.
U.S. Revokes Visa to One of Europe's Most Influential
Islamic Thinkers
Tariq Ramadan, a Swiss scholar known for his work on Islamic
theology and the place of Muslims in the modern world, was
appointed to teach Islamic philosophy and ethics at the University
of Notre Dame. After receiving a visa from the State Department,
it was revoked at the behest of the Homeland Security Department.
We go to Switzerland to speak with professor and author Tariq
Ramadan.
The United States has denied entry to one of one of Europe's
most influential Islamic thinkers.
Tariq Ramadan, a Swiss scholar known for his work on Islamic
theology and the place of Muslims in the modern world, was
appointed to teach Islamic philosophy and ethics at the University
of Notre Dame. He received a visa from the State Department
and was scheduled to start his classes in late August. But
just days before he was set to travel, his visa was revoked
without explanation at the behest of the Department of Homeland
Security.
It turns out Ramadan was barred under a section of the Patriot
Act, which bars entry to foreigners who have used a "position
of prominence . . . to endorse or espouse terrorist activity."
The move has been widely criticized by academics in the US,
who suspect that Ramadan had been barred because of his criticism
of US foreign policy.
Islamic scholars regard Tariq Ramadan as a Muslim moderate
but critics regard him as an anti-Semitic apologist for extremism.
Among them is Daniel Pipes, a board member of the United States
Institute of Peace and director of the Middle East Forum which
runs Campus Watch, a web site that seeks to expose professors
who allegedly hold anti-Israel views.
Pipes wrote in the Chicago Tribune to accuse Ramadan of connections
with Al Qaeda, denying Osama bin Laden's role in the Sept.
11 attacks and defending the March terrorist bombing in Madrid.
Ramadan responded in a Tribune article saying: "The
American public ought to know a few other facts about me.
I take pride in my faith as a Muslim and the West as my home
and birthplace and I make no apologies for taking a critical
look at Islam and the West. In doing so I am being true to
my faith and the ethics of my citizenship. Instead of mere
theoretical criticism, I propose practical solutions to the
challenges the world faces. I not only speak to ordinary citizens
of many faiths, religious leaders and academics but also to
politicians, world leaders and organizations."
- Tariq Ramadan, professor of Islamic studies and philosophy
at Fribourg University in Switzerland. He is the author
of "To Be a European Muslim" and "Western
Muslims and the Future of Islam." He has been described
by Time magazine as one of the 100 most likely innovators
of the 21st century.
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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