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Re: Rundown 11-15-04
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8:00-8:01 Billboard:
Iran Agrees to Temporarily Suspend Uranium Enrichment
Fallujah Devastated: Witnesses Describe Humanitarian Crisis
and Civilian Death Toll
White House Orders CIA Shakeup to Get Rid of "Soft Leakers
and Liberal Democrats"
Noam Chomsky on Yasser Arafat, Iraq and the Draft
8:01-8:09 Headlines
8:09-8:10 One Minute Music Break
8:10-8:58 Iran Agrees to Temporarily Suspend Uranium
Enrichment
INTRO: Iran has agreed to temporarily suspend all activities
connected with uranium enrichment as part of a deal with the
European Union to avert any U.N. Security Council sanctions.
We speak with Iranian professor and former diplomat Mansour
Farhang.
Iran has announced it will temporarily suspend uranium enrichment.
In a letter to the UN nuclear watchdog, the International
Atomic Energy Agency, Iran said it would suspend all activities
connected with uranium enrichment as part of a deal with the
European Union to avert any U.N. Security Council sanctions.
On Sunday, Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman said the suspension
would be in force until a final settlement is reached but
stressed that the freeze was only temporary. He said, "Accepting
the suspension is a politically motivated move."
The European Union wants Tehran to give up activities like
uranium enrichment permanently. In return the EU could offer
Iran incentives including help with a civilian nuclear program
and a possible trade deal. Iran has said it will never give
up enrichment technology and has denied US accusations that
its atomic energy program is a front for developing nuclear
weapons capability.
If the enrichment freeze is verified by IAEA inspectors,
diplomats said there was almost no chance that Washington
could succeed in referring the Iran case to the Security Council
when the IAEA board meets on Nov. 25.
The IAEA plans to circulate a crucial report today that summarizes
its two-year probe of Iran's atomic program. The report was
held up for days while negotiators from Iran and the European
Union struggled to break the deadlock in talks.
- Mansour Farhang, Iranian-born author and former diplomat.
He served as revolutionary Iran's first ambassador to the
United Nations and working as a mediator in the early months
of the Iran-Iraq war. He left Iran as a dissident in 1981
and now teaches international relations and Middle Eastern
politics at Bennington College, Vermont. He is the co-author
of "U.S. Press and Iran: Foreign Policy and the Journalism
of Deference" (Univ. of California, 1987) and the author
of "U.S. Imperialism: From the Spanish-American War
to the Iranian Revolution" (South End Press, 1981).
Fallujah Devastated: Witnesses Describe Humanitarian
Crisis and Civilian Death Toll
INTRO: The Iraqi city of Fallujah is devastated after a
week of intense fighting that has left at least 1200 Iraqis
dead. Witnesses describe bloated and decomposing bodies in
the streets, smashed homes, ruined mosques and severed power
and telephone lines. We go to Baghdad to speak with Dahr Jamail,
one of the few independent reporters in Iraq.
The battle for Fallujah continued today with US warplanes,
artillery and mortars attacking the Sunni city as bloody urban
warfare on the ground entered a second week.
American military commanders claim they occupy the city,
but expect several more days of fighting and stiff resistance.
One U.S. Major General told the BBC "We're more determined
and we're going to wipe them out."
Thirty-eight US soldiers have been killed and 275 wounded
in the assault. Six Iraqi government troops have also died.
The US military says it has killed about 1,200 Iraqis, all
of them fighters with the resistance. While there are no figures
on civilian deaths and the US-backed Iraqi interim Prime Minister
Iyad Allawi claims no civilians were killed, witness accounts
paint a very different and bloody picture.
A Reuters correspondent said he saw bloated and decomposing
bodies in the streets, smashed homes, ruined mosques and severed
power and telephone lines. Several accounts say bodies found
were being eaten by dogs and cats.
A member of an Iraqi relief committee told Al Jazeera television
he saw 22 bodies buried under rubble in the city's northern
district. He said the bodies included "two children whose
ages did not exceed 15 and a man with an artificial leg...it
was a very painful sight."
The Iraqi Red Crescent - one of the few aid agencies operating
in Iraq - is still negotiating with U.S. forces after being
denied access to Fallujah. It says it knows of at least 150
families trapped inside the city in desperate need of food,
clean water and medical supplies. One Iraqi father in Fallujah
told Reuters that his children were sick from diarrhea and
had not eaten for days. The U.S. military says it can take
care of Fallujah's humanitarian needs by itself.
- 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.
White House Orders CIA Shakeup to Get Rid of "Soft
Leakers and Liberal Democrats"
INTRO: Reports have emerged over the weekend that the White
House has ordered the new CIA director, Porter Goss, to purge
the agency of officers believed to have been disloyal to President
George W. Bush or of leaking damaging information to the media
about the conduct of the Iraq war and the hunt for Osama bin
Laden. We speak with former CIA analyst Melvin Goodman.
Reports have emerged over the weekend that the White House
has ordered the new CIA director, Porter Goss, to purge the
agency of officers believed to have been disloyal to President
George W. Bush or of leaking damaging information to the media
about the conduct of the Iraq war and the hunt for Osama bin
Laden.
One former senior CIA official told Newsday "The agency
is being purged on instructions from the White House."
The official went on to say, "Goss was given instructions
... to get rid of those soft leakers and liberal Democrats.
The CIA is looked on by the White House as a hotbed of liberals
and people who have been obstructing the president's agenda."
One of the first casualties appears to be Stephen R. Kappes,
deputy director of clandestine services, the CIA's most powerful
division. The Washington Post reported yesterday that Kappes
had tendered his resignation after a confrontation with Goss'
new chief of staff, Patrick Murray. On Friday, the deputy
director of the CIA, John McLaughlin, resigned after a series
of confrontations over the past week between Murray and senior
operations officials. McLaughlin is a 32-year CIA veteran
who was acting director for two months this summer until Goss
took over. When he resigned, McLaughlin warned that the agency
risked widespread resignations. The Washington Post reports
that several other senior clandestine service officers are
threatening to leave.
- Melvin Goodman, former CIA and State Department analyst.
He is a senior fellow at the Center
for International Policy and director of the Center's
National
Security Project. He is the author of the book: "Bush
League Diplomacy: How the Neoconservatives Are Putting the
World at Risk" (Promethues)
Noam Chomsky on Yasser Arafat, Iraq and the Draft
INTRO: We hear an excerpt of a speech by MIT linguistics
professor Noam Chomsky speaking at the 25th Anniversary of
Coalition for Peace Action in Princeton. The historian and
author spoke about Yasser Arafat, Iraq and the military draft.
Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat was buried in the West Bank
this weekend. For decades, Arafat was the embodiment of the
Palestinian cause and the symbol of resistance against Israeli
occupation. He was laid to rest in the Ramallah headquarters
where was confined by Israel for the final years of his life.
Tens of thousands of Palestinians gathered around his flag-draped
coffin as it was carried across the compound. Mourners wept
and chanted in an emotional farewell bid to the only leader
many of them have ever known. New Palestinian officials has
been named to lead in the post-Arafat era but the future remains
uncertain.
The new chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization,
Mahmoud Abbas, escaped injury Sunday after masked members
of the Al Aksr Brigade opened fire on a gathering where Palestinians
were mourning the death of Yasser Arafat. Two of Abbas' bodyguards
were killed in the shooting.
This past weekend, MIT linguistics professor Noam Chomsky
spoke at the 25th Anniversary of Coalition for Peace Action
in Princeton, New Jersey. The historian and author of over
100 books spoke about Yasser Arafat, Iraq and the military
draft. This is an excerpt of what he had to say.
- Noam Chomsky, speaking at the 25th Anniversary of Coalition
for Peace Action in Princeton, New Jersey.
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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