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The Battle for Fallujah: U.S. Forces Face Fierce Resistance
in Largest Offensive Since Invasion
French Forces Destroy Ivory Coast Airforce, Take Control
of Capital After Killing of 9 French Soldiers
Confessions of an Economic Hit Man: How the U.S. Uses Globalization
to Cheat Poor Countries Out of Trillions
The Battle for Fallujah: U.S. Forces Face Fierce
Resistance in Largest Offensive Since Invasion
The U.S. assault on the Iraqi city of Fallujah has entered
its second day. Thousands of U.S. forces inside the Sunni
city are engaged in some of the fiercest urban warfare seen
to date in Iraq. We go to Baghdad to speak with Dahr Jamail,
one of the few independent reporters in Iraq and we speak
with California State University professor As'ad AbuKhalil.
The battle for Fallujah has entered its second day. U.S.
and Iraqi forces have been facing heavy resistance as they
battled towards the center of Fallujah. The Iraqi resistance,
using small arms and mortar fire, has been defending the city
street by street under heavy ground and air bombardment.
The number of casualties in the attack codenamed Phantom
Fury is unknown. The US military has claimed it killed 41
Iraqi fighters. At least two U.S. Marines have also been killed.
After airstrikes pummeled Fallujah for hours, U.S. tanks
and Humvees began the ground assault through the northeastern
part of the city. Guerillas fought back hard, forcing the
advancing troops to fight every step of the way with some
units reportedly taking hours to advance past a single line
of houses. U.S. troops dodged sniper fire and destroyed booby
traps as a cleric at a local mosque called on militants to
fight back over the mosque's loudspeaker. One U.S. Captain
told Reuters "These people are hardcore... They are putting
up a strong fight."
Meanwhile, the U.S. continued its targeting of medical facilities
in the city. A makeshift clinic that is serving as the main
first-aid facility was bombed this morning after U.S. and
Iraqi forces took over Fallujah General Hospital early Monday.
Doctors inside the besieged city painted a grim picture amid
a chronic lack of medical equipment, trained staff, water
and electricity.
Hundreds of homes have already been destroyed. The US troops
have cut electricity to the center and most houses are without
running water. Food shortages are already emerging because
stores have been closed for days.
Many of the 250,000 civilians who live in Fallujah have fled
the city ahead of the offensive, which is expected to be the
largest battle since the invasion of Iraq in March 2003.
Hours before the ground offensive, the U.S.-backed interim
prime minister Iyad Allawi flew to a US military base near
Fallujah to rally Iraqi soldiers. He told them "Your
job is to arrest the killers but if you kill them, then so
be it."
The attack on Fallujah has been widely condemned inside Iraq.
One of the country's major Sunni political parties, the Iraqi
Islamic Party, announced today that it is pulling out of the
interim Iraqi government in protest of the invasion of Fallujah.
This comes after the Association of Muslim Scholars, which
has threatened to boycott elections, put forth a peace plan
that the U.S. all but rejected with no public discussion.
Back in the U.S., Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld spoke
to reporters at the Pentagon about the purpose of the assault.
- Donald Rumsfeld, Secratry of Defense addressing reporters
at the Pentagon, November 8, 2004.
- Dahr Jamail, an independent journalist currently based
in Baghdad. He is one of the only independent, unembedded
journalists in Iraq right now. He publishes his reports
on a blog called DahrJamailIraq.com.
He joins us on the line from downtown Baghdad.
- As'ad AbuKhalil, professor of political science at California
State University, Stanislaus and visiting professor at UC,
Berkeley. He is the author of several books, his latest
is "The Battle for Saudi Arabia: Royalty, Fundamentalism,
and Global Power." He runs a blog called "The
Angry Arab News Service."
French Forces Destroy Ivory Coast Airforce, Take
Control of Capital After Killing of 9 French Soldiers
French armored vehicles take up positions in the Ivory Coast
capital of Abidjan near the home of President Gbagbo on Monday
as thousands of his supporters marched on the site, fearing
an attempt to oust him. We speak with West African journalist,
Abdoulaye Dukule.
South African President Thabo Mbeki arrived in the Ivory
Coast today to help find a solution to the political unrest
in the West African country that has left up to 20 people
dead and 700 wounded.
French forces moved to take control of the capital of Abidjan
after chaos erupted in the world's largest cocoa producer
late last week when Ivorian warplanes launched a surprise
airstirke in the northern part of the country that has been
controlled by rebels since a failed attempt to oust President
Laurent Gbagbo in 2002.
Nine French soldiers and an American civilian aid worker
were killed in the attack. The government later called the
bombing a mistake. France - which colonized the Ivory Coast
for over half a century - has about 4,000 peacekeepers in
Ivory Coast. The United Nations has about 6,000, manning a
buffer zone between rebel north and government south.
France hit back within hours, wiping out Ivory Coast's newly
built-up air force -- two Russian-made jet fighters and at
least three helicopter gunships. Following the offensive,
rioting and looting targeting French nationals and other foreigners
left up to 700 people wounded and gutted homes and businesses.
Over the weekend, French armored vehicles rolled through Abidjan
after taking control of the international airport, bridges
and other strategic points.
Fifty French armored vehicles took up positions near the
home of President Gbagbo on Monday as thousands of his supporters
marched on the site, fearing an attempt to oust him.
Confessions of an Economic Hit Man: How the U.S.
Uses Globalization to Cheat Poor Countries Out of Trillions
We speak with John Perkins, a former respected member of
the international banking community. In his book Confessions
of an Economic Hit Man he describes how as a highly paid professional,
he helped the U.S. cheat poor countries around the globe out
of trillions of dollars by lending them more money than they
could possibly repay and then take over their economies.
John Perkins describes himself as a former economic hit man
- a highly paid professional who cheated countries around
the globe out of trillions of dollars.
20 years ago Perkins began writing a book with the working
title, "Conscience of an Economic Hit Men."
Perkins writes, "The book was to be dedicated to the
presidents of two countries, men who had been his clients
whom I respected and thought of as kindred spirits - Jaime
Roldós, president of Ecuador, and Omar Torrijos, president
of Panama. Both had just died in fiery crashes. Their deaths
were not accidental. They were assassinated because they opposed
that fraternity of corporate, government, and banking heads
whose goal is global empire. We Economic Hit Men failed to
bring Roldós and Torrijos around, and the other type
of hit men, the CIA-sanctioned jackals who were always right
behind us, stepped in.
John Perkins goes on to write: "I was persuaded to stop
writing that book. I started it four more times during the
next twenty years. On each occasion, my decision to begin
again was influenced by current world events: the U.S. invasion
of Panama in 1980, the first Gulf War, Somalia, and the rise
of Osama bin Laden. However, threats or bribes always convinced
me to stop."
But now Perkins has finally published his story. The book
is titled Confessions of an Economic Hit Man. John Perkins
joins us now in our Firehouse studios.
- John Perkins, from 1971 to 1981 he worked for the international
consulting firm of Chas T. Main where he was a self-described
"economic hit man." He is the author of the new
book Confessions of an Economic Hit Man.
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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