Home > Programs
> Democracy
Now! > Mon., Nov. 1, 2004
Democracy Now!
ATTN: ALL STATIONS
From: Democracy Now!
Re: Rundown 11-1-04
PRSS Channel: A67.7
Robert
Fisk: "Bin Laden's Vote is For George Bush"
Study: Iraq Invasion Has Killed 100,000 Civilians
IRS Investigating NAACP For Criticizing Bush
New Initiative Calls for Mass Protest on Nov. 3 if Election
is "Stolen"
Indymedia Launches Special Election Coverage
Robert Fisk: "Bin Laden's Vote is For George
Bush"
As the newest videotaped message from Osama bin Laden is
broadcast four days before the election, we speak with veteran
Middle East correspondent Robert Fisk, who has interviewed
bin Laden three times. Fisk also discusses Iraqi civilian
casualties, kidnapped humanitarian worker Margaret Hassan,
Palestinian leader Yasser Araft's ailing health and much more.
This is Democracy Now!'s special election coverage "Countdown
to the Showdown: The Battle for the White House," The
final Gallup poll of the 2004 election was released yesterday
showing President Bush and John Kerry in the closest presidential
race in the history of Gallup Polls. The poll gives Bush a
49-47 lead over Kerry, a statistical dead heat.
At least 10 states could end up going to either Bush or Kerry.
Of six states polled by Gallup, Kerry was slightly ahead in
three: Ohio, Florida and Minnesota. Bush had slight leads
in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Iowa, although a Des Moines
Register poll released Sunday had Kerry up slightly in Iowa.
And other polls released over the weekend showed Kerry ahead
in Pennsylvania and Bush ahead in Florida. In all six states,
terrorism or the war in Iraq were named by at least half of
prospective voters as their primary concern.
The poll comes as the newest videotaped message from Osama
bin Laden dominated the Sunday talk shows. Some are calling
it a mini-October surprise. The tape was broadcast on Friday
afternoon by the Arabic network al Jazeera. Bin Laden appears
to be in good health and is dressed in a gold colored robe
standing at a podium reading from prepared notes. The 18 minutes
address was directed at the American people. Bin Laden mentioned
both Bush and Kerry by name, saying that neither of them can
bring security to the people of the United States.
On the tape, bin Laden says that the motivation for the September
11 attacks goes back to the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon
and the US support for the invasion. He said "As I was
looking at those towers that were destroyed in Lebanon, it
occurred to me that we have to punish the transgressor with
the same -- and that we had to destroy the towers in America
so that they taste what we tasted, and they stop killing our
women and children."
Bin Laden blasts Bush's handling of the 9/11 attacks saying,
"We never knew that the commander-in-chief of the American
armed forces would leave 50,000 of his people in the two towers
to face those events by themselves when they were in the most
urgent need of their leader. He was more interested in listening
to the child's story about the goat rather than worry about
what was happening to the towers. So, we had three times the
time necessary to accomplish the events."
He compares the Bush administration and the Bush family to
Gulf monarchies and military dictatorships in the Middle East,
saying Bush "moved the tyranny and suppression of freedom
to his own country, and they called it the Patriot Act, under
the disguise of fighting terrorism. And Bush, the father,
found it good to install his children as governors and leaders."
Bin Laden dismissed the Bush administration's contention
that the attacks were carried out because al Qaeda hates freedom.
Bin Laden asks, if we hate freedom --let him tell us then,
"Why did we not attack Sweden?"
- Robert Fisk, chief Middle East correspondent for the
London Independent. He is the author of "Pity the Nation:
The Abduction of Lebanon"
Study: Iraq Invasion Has Killed 100,000 Civilians
We speak with the co-author of a new independent, peer-reviewed
study that has concluded at least 100,000 Iraqi civilians
have died because of the U.S invasion last year.
A new independent, peer-reviewed study has concluded that
at least 100,000 Iraqi civilians have died because of the
U.S invasion last year.
The study entitled "Mortality
Before And After The 2003 Invasion of Iraq: A Cluster Sample
Survey" appears in Britain's foremost medical journal
"The Lancet" and was conducted by researchers at
Columbia University, Johns Hopkins and Al-Mustansiriya in
Baghdad.
The estimated number of deaths of 100,000 is considerably
higher than previous estimates. The study found the rise in
the death rate was mainly due to violence and much of it was
caused by U.S. air strikes on towns and cities. Most of the
victims were women and children.
The U.S. military claims it does not keep tallies on civilian
casualties but the London Independent is reporting that the
Pentagon does collect data on Iraqi casualties and is keeping
the results classified. The U.S.-backed interim Iraqi government
has also suppressed casualty figures. An official at the Iraqi
Health Ministry who was compiling data from hospital records
last year was ordered by a superior in December to stop.
- Les Roberts, co-author of the
study on civilian mortality in Iraq since the invasion.
He is an epidemiologist at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School
of Public Health.
IRS Investigating NAACP For Criticizing Bush
The Internal Revenue Service is investigating the non-profit
status of the NAACP after its chairman, Julian Bond, criticized
the Bush administration in a speech at its annual convention
in July. We speak with NAACP Director Hilary Shelton about
the investigation as well as the intimidation and suppression
of voters around the country.
Three members of Congress are calling on the Internal Revenue
Service to drop an investigation into the non-profit status
of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored
People. The IRS audit comes after its chairman, Julian Bond,
criticized the Bush administration in a speech at its annual
convention in July.
At the time, President Bush turned down an invitation from
the NAACP - the country's oldest and largest civil rights
organization - to speak at the convention. In his speech,
Chairman Bond criticized Bush's civil rights record, the Iraq
war, the high black unemployment rate and the decline of educational
opportunities for blacks.
The letter addressed to the IRS Commissioner by three House
Democrats: Charles Rangel of New York, Pete Stark of California
and John Conyers of Michigan says: "it is obvious that
the timing of this IRS examination is nothing more than an
effort to intimidate the members of the NAACP."
The NAACP's tax-exempt status allows contributors to make
tax-deductible contributions but restricts its lobbying efforts.
If the IRS investigation determines that the NAACP intervened
in a political campaign, the most severe penalty would be
the loss of its tax-exempt status.
The IRS said about 60 charities, churches and other tax-exempt
groups are currently under investigation for possibly breaking
federal rules that bar them from participating in political
activities. This comes as a new report by OMB Watch, a Washington-based
watchdog group, finds a growing pattern of intimidation and
suppression of free-speech and advocacy rights of charities
and other nonprofits.
- Hilary Shelton, Director of the NAACP Washington Bureau
in Washington DC.
New Initiative Calls for Mass Protest on Nov. 3 if
Election is "Stolen"
We speak with Medea Benjamin, an organizer with the No Stolen
Elections campaign that is calling on people everywhere to
engage in protest and non-violent civil disobedience if they
find that significant fraud in the election.
- Medea Benjamin, an organizer with the No
Stolen Elections campaign. She joins us from Palm Beach,
Florda.
Indymedia Launches Special Election Coverage
The Indymedia network is launching a new website, indymedia.us,
as part of its special coverage of the 2004 election. We speak
with Joshua Breitbart, who is working with the Michigan Indymedia
Center.
The Indymedia network is announcing the launch of a new website
as part of its special coverage of the 2004 election.
The website indymedia.us
will publish articles by participating local US-based IMC"s
from around the county.
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.
|
Listen
to the show
Help
whole
show
