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Suppression, Fraud and Breakdown: Voting Problems Emerge
in States Across the Country
Army Captain Granted Reprieve After Suing U.S. Gvt. To Block
Iraq Deployment
Kidnapped British Aid Worker: "Ask Mr. Blair to Take
the Troops Out of Iraq, and Not to Bring Them Here to Baghdad"
Headlines
One Minute Music Break
Suppression, Fraud and Breakdown: Voting Problems
Emerge in States Across the Country
INTRO: Voters in states across the country have already
begun to vote as millions more prepare to head to the polls
next week to vote in the 2004 presidential election. We take
a look at voter suppression and fraud with a lawyer with the
Voting Rights Project, focusing on voter protection, a journalist
with the London Independent and an international monitor who
was part of a team that has prepared a Pre-Election report.
Voters in states across the country have already begun to
vote as millions more prepare to head to the polls next week
in what many are calling one of the most important presidential
elections in U.S. history.
Four years after the battle for Florida in 2000, the country
is hoping to avoid another post-election stalemate and with
the latest polls showing George W Bush and John Kerry in a
statistical dead heat, every vote counts.
But while this election looks likely to be extremely close,
the voting system is far from flawless. Voting machines have
already begun to break down, accusations of systematic voter
suppression and fraud are rampant, and lawyers have flocked
to half a dozen states to cry foul.
In addition, a team of international observers who are monitoring
the elections for the first time in American history, released
a pre-election report that calls for major reforms in the
process to promote confidence the voting system.
Today we take a look at voter suppression, intimidation and
harassment in the 2004 election.
- Irene Baghoomians, international monitor with the Pre-Election
Observation Delegation that has compiled a report
on the election system in the U.S. She is a human rights
lawyer and a professor at the University of Sydney Law School.
She joins us on the phone from Australia.
Army Captain Granted Reprieve After Suing U.S. Gvt.
To Block Iraq Deployment
INTRO: A federal judge agreed that Army Captian Jay Ferriola
will not have to report for duty today while the Army decides
whether to approve his June resignation application. Ferriola
sued the government last week to block his pending deployment
to Iraq. We speak with his lawyer Stuart Slotnick.
A former U.S. soldier is suing the government to block his
pending deployment to Iraq.
Army Captain Jay Ferriola resigned from the military in June
after completing eight years of service but last week he received
orders to report back to active duty and serve on an 18-month
mission in Iraq. In the lawsuit, Ferriola said that Defense
Secretary Donald Rumsfeld unlawfully continues to exercise
control over him even though he properly resigned and was
asked to turn in his equipment.
The government agreed that Ferriola will not have to report
for duty today while the Army decides whether to approve his
June resignation application.
Yesterday in New York, an emergency hearing was held on Ferriola's
lawsuit and whether he would have to go to Iraq. After the
hearing, his lawyer Barry Slotnik addressed reporters outside
the courthouse.
- Barry Slotnick, attorney for Jay Ferriola speaking outside
the New York federal courthouse on Sunday.
- Stuart Slotnick, attorney for Jay Ferriola.
Kidnapped British Aid Worker: "Ask Mr. Blair
to Take the Troops Out of Iraq, and Not to Bring Them Here
to Baghdad"
INTRO: Kidnapped British aid worker Margaret Hassan appealed
to the British government to pull troops out of Iraq to save
her life in footage broadcast across the world. We speak with
Iraq activist, researcher and longtime friend of Hassan, Felicity
Arbuthnot.
In Iraq, the fate of kidnapped aid worker Margaret Hassan
remains unknown, days after the Arabic satellite channel al
Jazeera ran a video of her crying and pleading with British
Prime Minister Tony Blair to withdraw British troops from
Iraq. Hassan is the head of the Baghdad operations of the
British charity CARE International. CARE is one of the world's
largest independent global relief and development organizations
and has been active in Iraq since the Persian Gulf War.
While Margaret Hassan is of Irish ancestry, she is also an
Iraqi citizen and has dedicated her life to addressing the
many humanitarian catastrophes in the country. She has been
married to an Iraqi man for 30 years and has worked and lived
in Iraq for more than 2 decades.
Last week, her husband, Tahseen Ali Hassan, held a press
conference where he gave journalists more details of his wife's
abduction last Tuesday. He said that according to eye witnesses
four armed men were involved in his wife"s kidnapping.
They leapt out of two cars, he said, and forced everyone but
Hassan from the car before speeding off with her inside.
Hassan's husband also made a direct appeal to her captors,
saying "She's not involved in politics or religion. She
is Iraqi. She is working for the humanitarian organization
and I ask you to release her. She liked the people, she liked
the country that's why she is here for 30 years. Otherwise
she could have left." A day after Margaret Hassan's husband
made that appeal, al Jazeera aired this video of the kidnapped
aid worker.
- Margaret Hassan, footage aired by al Jazeera.
- Felicity Arbuthnot, longtime Iraq activist and researcher
who has spent extensive time in Iraq over the past decade.
She also was the senior researcher on John Pilger's award-winning
documentary "Paying the Price: Killing the Children
of Iraq." Her latest piece is called "Margaret
Hassan: A Personal Tale."
8:58-8:59 Outro and Credits
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 John Hamilton.
Mike Di Filippo is our engineer.
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