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Charley,
Frances and Ivan: Hurricanes and Global Warming
Election Issue 2004: A Debate on Healthcare
The Story Behind the Bridge To Baghdad Abduction
Charley, Frances and Ivan: Hurricanes and Global
Warming
As Hurricane Ivan slams into the U.S. Gulf Coast with devastating
winds and pounding waves, we go to New Orleans - which narrowly
avoided a catastrophe - to speak with Pulitzer prize-winning
environmental reporter Mark Schleifstein and David Helvarg
of the Blue Frontier Campaign.
Hurricane Ivan slammed into the Gulf Coast early today with
devastating winds and pounding waves that ripped homes apart,
destroyed power lines and flooded deep inland.
After a deadly rampage across the Caribbean and the Gulf
of Mexico that left 68 people dead, Hurricane Ivan made landfall
near the town of Gulf Shores, Alabama, at about 3:00am Eastern
Time this morning.
But the storm, which is the size of Texas, was felt over
a huge stretch of the coast and inland in Alabama, Mississippi,
Louisiana and Florida where nearly two million residents were
ordered to evacuate their homes. Thousands of people huddled
in shelters and hundreds of thousands were left without power.
Hours before Ivan came ashore, its outer edges spawned tornadoes
blamed for the deaths of two people in Panama City Beach,
Florida.
But it is New Orleans - the largest US city below sea level
- that is particularly vulnerable to flooding. The city's
emergency manager yesterday warned that as many as 50,000
people could drown if New Orleans was hit by a strong Category
4 storm. The city has 10,000 body bags on hand in case of
a catastrophe.
While many New Orleans residents took city officials' advice
and left town, a large group of people, mostly concentrated
in poorer neighborhoods didn't have a choice but to stay and
hope for the best. With no public transportation or evacuation
plan, up to 100,000 people were left stranded in the city.
- David Helvarg, President of the Blue Frontier Campaign
and author of the books The War Against the Greens and Blue
Frontier: Saving Americas Living Seas. He is also a contributor
to Feeling the Heat - Reports from the Frontlines of Climate
Change.
- Mark Schleifstein, Pulitzer prize-winning environmental
reporter for the New Orleans Times Picayune. He joins us
on the phone from his office in New Orleans where he spent
the night.
Election Issue 2004: A Debate on Healthcare
President Bush and Democratic candidate John Kerry have
radically different views on how to run the U.S. healthcare
system. We host a debate on healthcare with Harvard professor
Dr. Steffie Woolhandler and Sally Pipes of the Pacific Research
Institute.
The presidential campaign has been dominated in recent weeks
by the military records of President Bush and his contender
Senator John Kerry. But it is another issue that is turning
out to be one of most important to voters in the election
- Healthcare.
Bush and Kerry have radically different views on how the
U.S. healthcare system should be run.
Kerry is planning to expand the existing system of employer-provided
insurance and federal health programs. Bush wants to rely
on market-oriented alternatives to government programs.
The Kerry campaign estimates that their healthcare plan would
cost about $650 billion over 10 years and provide coverage
for 27 million more Americans by expanding existing government
programs and increasing subsidies for private insurance. This
according to the Los Angeles Times.
Bush's plan centers on tax breaks to encourage individuals
to buy their own health insurance or to save for future expenses.
Bush aides estimate that his plan would cost $145 billion
over 10 years and provide coverage for more than 11 million
uninsured people.
- Dr. Steffie Woolhandler, Associate Professor of Medicine
at Harvard University and co-director of the Harvard Medical
School General Internal Medicine Fellowship program. She
is a co-founder of Physicians for a National Health Program.
- Sally Pipes, president of the San Francisco-based Pacific
Research Institute. She is the author of the new book "Miracle
Cure: How to Solve America's Health Care Crisis and Why
Canada Isn't the Answer."
The Story Behind the Bridge To Baghdad Abduction
On September 7, armed attackers seized Italian humanitarian
workers Simona Torretta, Simona Pari and their Iraqi colleagues,
Mahnouz Bassam and Raad Ali Abdul Azziz. Nothing about this
kidnapping fits the pattern of other abductions, from the
sophisticated weapons to the clean-shaven man in charge that
the others called, "sir." We'll speak with correspondent
Jeremy Scahill. With Naomi Klein, he wrote an investigative
piece for The Guardian of London on the case.
Two Americans and a British citizen were abducted in Baghdad
today, according to the Iraqi interior ministry. A spokesman
said that gunmen seized the men at dawn from a house in the
capital's Mansour neighborhood - a wealthy residential area
on the river Tigris, where many multinational companies have
their headquarters.
The men were reportedly bundled into a minivan and driven
away without a fight. They were employees of Gulf Services
Company, a Middle East-based construction firm. This according
to the BBC.
This latest kidnapping brings the number of foreigners in
Iraq currently being held to 20. What is virtually unreported
by the international media is the kidnapping of Iraqis for
ransom which has become commonplace, particularly in Baghdad.
The kidnapping of the US and British citizens follows the
abduction of two Italian and two Iraqi humanitarian workers
last week. The women, Simona Torretta and Simona Pari were
abducted from their Baghdad office on September 7th along
with their Iraqi colleagues Raad Ali Abdul Azziz and Mahnouz
Bassam. The four worked at "A Bridge to Baghdad"
- the longest standing non-governmental organization operating
in Iraq.
This is an excerpt of an interview recorded in February with
Simona Toretta - one of the Italian hostages. It was recorded
by filmmaker and activist Francis Anderson. This is Sinona
Torretta.
- Simona Torretta, being interviewed in February 2004.
Courtesy of Francis Anderson.
An investigative article by Jeremy Scahill and Naomi Klein
in the Guardian (UK) raises questions about the kidnapping
of the two Italian and two Iraqi humanitarian workers last
week.
- Jeremy Scahill, producer and correspondent for Democracy
Now!
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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