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Chain
of Command: The Road from 9/11 to Abu Ghraib
Kidnapped Italian Aid Worker Simona Torretta On Why She Went
to Baghdad: "Iraq is a Part of My Life"
Chain of Command: The Road from 9/11 to Abu Ghraib
Pulitzer prize-winning reporter Seymour Hersh joins us in
our firehouse studio to talk about his new book, Chain of
Command: The Road from 9/11 to Abu Ghraib. The book takes
a look behind the public story of President Bush's "war
on terror" and into the lies and obsessions that led
America into Iraq. Hersh provides a new account of the Abu
Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal that he exposed last spring
and of where, he believes, responsibility for the scandal
ultimately lies.
A U.S. court martial in Baghdad last weekend sentenced a
soldier to eight months in jail for maltreating and conspiring
to maltreat Iraqi detainees at Abu Ghraib prison.
Specialist Armin J. Cruz confessed to forcing three naked
inmates at Abu Ghraib jail to crawl along a floor before making
them simulate sex acts. Cruz was spotted in a photo taken
during abuses committed in October. He is the eighth American
soldier to be charged over the abuses but the first from military
intelligence.
Cruz pleaded guilty to conspiracy and maltreatment of prisoners
and has agreed to testify against others charged in more serious
cases of mistreatment at the U.S.-run prison west of Baghdad.
But while Cruz pleaded guilty, his lawyers contended throughout
that he was just following orders from superiors. But how
high does the scandal go? Today we look at the "Chain
of Command: The Road from 9/11 to Abu Ghraib." That's
the title of a new book by Pulitzer prize-winning reporter
Seymour Hersh.
In his book, Hersh writes that at the height of the Abu Ghraib
prison scandal in May 2004, a Republican operative received
the reassuring word that Vice President Dick Cheney had taken
control of the situation. The operative "learned that
Cheney had telephoned Rumsfeld with a simple message: No resignations.
We're going to hunker down and tough it out." Hersh writes
"Cheney's concern was not national security. This was
a political call - a reminder that the White House would seize
control of every crisis that could affect the re-election
of George Bush."
- Seymour Hersh, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist for
the New Yorker. He is the author of several books, his latest
is Chain of Command: The Road from 9/11 to Abu Ghraib
Kidnapped Italian Aid Worker Simona Torretta On Why
She Went to Baghdad: "Iraq is a Part of My Life"
As the fate of the two Italian and two Iraqi humanitarian
workers of the Italian organization "A Bridge to Baghdad"
abducted last week hangs in the balance, we play an excerpt
of an interview recorded in February 2004 with Simona Toretta,
one of the Italian aid workers taken hostage.
Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini is touring countries
that neighbor Iraq in an effort to free two Italian aid workers
who were abducted on September 7. The women, Simona Torretta
and Simona Pari were kidnapped from their Baghdad office in
broad daylight, along with Iraqi aid workers Raad Ali Abdul
Azziz and Mahnouz Bassam. Two groups have taken responsibility
for the kidnappings but no video or photos have been released.
A deadline set by one of the groups, The Islamic Jihad Organization,
expired Monday night with no word on their fate. The group
said in a statement posted on the internet Sunday that they
would be killed in 24 hours unless Italy withdrew its troops
from Iraq. With more than 2,700 troops, Italy has the third
largest military contingent in Iraq. Prime Minister Sylvio
Berlesconni has said he will not pull out.
Meanwhile, numerous Islamic groups and scholars have publicly
appealed for the release of the women, as has Palestinian
leader Yasser Arafat. The head of the International Association
of Islamic scholars issued a statement earlier this week calling
on Muslims to fight the US in Iraq, but to release the women,
saying they have nothing to do with the occupation.
A Bridge to Baghdad is the longest standing non-governmental
organization operating in Iraq. It began working in the country
in 1992, a year after the so-called Gulf War. In all of its
time in the country, it has opposed the sanctions against
Iraq, all of the US attacks on the country as well as the
invasion and current occupation. Yesterday, Democracy Now!
obtained an interview recorded in February with Simona Toretta.
It was recorded by filmmaker and activist Francis Anderson.
Here is Simona Torretta describing the night she arrived in
Baghdad at the beginning of the US invasion.
- Simona Torretta, being interviewed in February 2004.
Courtesy of Francis Anderson.
That was Simona Toretta speaking in February of this year.
She is now being held hostage after being abducted on September
7. In the interview, she also talked about conversations she
had with Iraqis over her years of work in Iraq.
- Simona Torretta, being interviewed in February 2004.
Courtesy of Francis Anderson.
- Ornella Sangiovanni, is a coordinator of the Italian
humanitarian group, A Bridge to Baghdad. Until the beginning
of the invasion, she was the head of the organization's
anti-sanctions campaign. She has worked with A
Bridge to Baghdad since 1996.
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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