Home > Programs
> Democracy
Now! > Tue., Nov. 30, 2004
Democracy Now!
ATTN: ALL STATIONS
From: Democracy Now!
Re: Rundown 11-30-04
PRSS Channel: A67.7
Red Cross Finds Detainees Intentionally Tortured in Guantanamo
as Lawyers in Germany Charge Rumsfeld, Tenet With War Crimes
in Iraq
Sudan Postpones Decision to Expel Oxfam and Save the Children
U.S. a No-Show At International Anti-Landmine Conference
Iraqi-American Returns Home to Occupied Iraq After 30 Years
to Teach and "Help Rebuild" His Country
Jesse Jackson: Kerry's "Early Concession Betrayed the
Trust of the Voters"
Red Cross Finds Detainees Intentionally Tortured
in Guantanamo as Lawyers in Germany Charge Rumsfeld, Tenet
With War Crimes in Iraq
In a confidential report, the Red Cross concluded that the
U.S. has been intentionally using psychological and sometimes
physical coercion "tantamount to torture" on prisoners
at Guantanamo Bay. We go to Germany to speak with Michael
Ratner, president of the Center for Constitutional Rights,
who is filing a criminal complaint charging a group of U.S.
officials with war crimes in Iraq.
The International Committee of the Red Cross has concluded
that the U.S. has been intentionally using psychological and
sometimes physical coercion "tantamount to torture"
on prisoners at Guantanamo Bay. This according to a report
in the New York Times.
The conclusion comes in a confidential report written by
the Red Cross based on information the group obtained during
a visit to Guantanamo in June.
The report also concluded that the military had a set up
a system at Guantanamo devised to break the will of the prisoners
, and make them wholly dependent on their interrogators through
"humiliating acts, solitary confinement, temperature
extremes, use of forced positions." The U.S. has rejected
the charges.
Meanwhile in Germany, the Center for Constitutional Rights
is filing a criminal complaint today on behalf of four Iraqi
citizens who allege that a group of U.S. officials committed
war crimes in Iraq.
The Iraqis claim they were victims of electric shock, severe
beatings, sleep and food deprivation and sexual abuse. Among
the officials named in the complaint are Defense Secretary
Donald Rumsfeld and Former CIA Director George Tenet. Germany's
laws on torture and war crimes permits the prosecution of
suspected war criminals wherever they may be found.
Sudan Postpones Decision to Expel Oxfam and Save
the Children
Sudan has decided to postpone a decision to expel the heads
of two British aid agencies - Oxfam and Save the Children
- citing administrative difficulties and humanitarian grounds.
We speak with the director of Africa Action, Salih Booker.
Sudan has decided to postpone a decision to expel the heads
of two British aid agencies - Oxfam and Save the Children
- citing administrative difficulties and humanitarian grounds.
The Sudanese state minister for humanitarian affairs said,
"This is an administrative decision which we did not
realize all the implications of." Both organizations
are still on notice for what the ministry had said was interfering
in political issues, forbidden by Sudanese law governing emergency
aid agencies working in the country.
Save the Children - one of the largest food distributors
in Darfur - had issued a statement last week that accused
the government of dropping a bomb near one of its feeding
centers. Oxfam had criticized a UN Security Council resolution
issued in Nairobi earlier this month which contained weaker
wording on the possibility of sanctions against Sudan than
previous resolutions.
The news comes days after the World Food Program announced
it was suspending much of its relief operation in the Dafur
region because of resumed fighting, leaving an estimated 300,000
refugees without aid.
U.S. a No-Show At International Anti-Landmine Conference
The Bush administration decided not to send any representatives
to an international conference on eradicating land mines that
opened in Kenya this week. We go to Nairobi to hear from a
spokesperson for the International Campaign to Ban Landmines.
An international conference on eradicating land mines has
opened in Kenya this week. The conference is the first review
of progress in ridding the world of anti-personnel mines since
the 1999 Ottawa Convention. Ethiopia became the 144th nation
to accept the Convention banning antipersonnel mines. Some
40 countries including the US, China and Russia have refused
to sign the treaty, which bans the use, production, stockpiling
and transfer of antipersonnel mines and calls for mined areas
to be cleared within 10 years.
The Bush administration has decided not to send any representatives
to the conference. Actor Danny Glover, making his first trip
as a goodwill ambassador the UN Children"s Fund (UNICEF),
said: "As a citizen of the U.S., I feel embarrassed and
angry."
An estimated 20,000 people die because of landmine explosions
every year.
Iraqi-American Returns Home to Occupied Iraq After
30 Years to Teach and "Help Rebuild" His Country
For only the second time in nearly 30 years, Iraqi-American
Sami Rasouli is returning to his home of Najaf, Iraq. Rasouli
is a successful restaurateur in Minneapolis where he lives
with his family. He is boarding a plane today to return to
occupied Iraq to help rebuild his country devastated by a
war he opposed.
For only the second time in nearly 30 years, Iraqi-American
Sami Rasouli is returning to his home of Najaf, Iraq. Sami
Rasouli is a successful restaurateur in Minneapolis where
he lives with his family. He is boarding a plane today to
return to occupied Iraq.
Rasouli grew up in Najaf, considered a "holy" city
among Shia Muslims, about 100 miles from Baghdad. After attending
school in Karbala, he left Iraq for a math-teaching job in
the United Arab Emirates. He stayed six years in the UAE before
moving to Germany, where he married Fatema, a Palestinian
from Lebanon.
In 1985, Rasouli came to the United States with his family
originally to seek a medical breakthrough for their oldest
son, who was deaf. An experimental procedure did not work,
but Rasouli and his family decided to stay in the United States.
Rasouli's brother lived in Minnesota at the time, so he moved
his family there in 1986 and earned a living driving a cab.
Rasouli saved his earnings and in 1990, he opened a restaurant
serving Middle Easter cuisine in Minneapolis. He called it
Sindbad.
Now, nearly thirty years after leaving Iraq, Sami Rasouli
is returning home. Last month, I had a chance to sit down
with Sami Rasouli for an extended conversation about his trip
home to Iraq. This is some of what he had to say.
Jesse Jackson: Kerry's "Early Concession Betrayed
the Trust of the Voters"
As voter fraud in Ukraine's election dominates the headlines,
we take a look at the U.S. election and the widespread reports
of voter irregularities in Ohio. We speak with the Rev. Jesse
Jackson who is calling for an Ohio recount and an attorney
filing a lawsuit in the Ohio Supreme Court this week to contest
the election.
We turn now to election news: Democracy Now co-host Juan
Gonzalez writes
in today's New York Daily News:
"Voter fraud in the Ukraine? Give me a break.
"It has been a month now and we still don't have a clear
count of the votes for our own presidential race from the
state of Ohio.
"For those who may have forgotten, Ohio supposedly assured
George W. Bush a second term in the White House - only the
most important job on the planet.
"The morning after the election, we were told Bush was
ahead of John Kerry in that state's unofficial count by 139,000
votes, or 2.5%.
"At the time there were 155,000 uncounted provisional
ballots and an unknown number of overseas ballots, but Kerry
concluded they would not produce enough of a margin to erase
his deficit, so he promptly conceded.
"At the same time, given the bitter Democratic memories
of the 2000 Florida fiasco, he assured his supporters he would
fight to have every vote properly counted this time.
"Within a few days, other problems began to show up
in Ohio's preliminary tally."
- Rev. Jesse Jackson, civil rights leader. He is the founder
of the Rainbow/PUSH
coalition, a progressive organization fighting for social
change. This past Sunday, he appeared at a rally of over
500 in Columbus to publicly endorse a presidential recount
in Ohio. Jackson's Rainbow Push Coalition has now joined
with the Green and Libertarian Parties in demanding the
recount.
- Cliff Arnebeck, public interest lawyer who is filing
a lawsuit in the Ohio Supreme Court this week contesting
the election. He is co-chair of the Alliance
for Democracy and Chairman of the Legal Affairs Committee
of Common Cause in Ohio.
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
