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Intel Agent Strapped to Gurney and Flown Out of Iraq by U.S.
Army After Reporting Torture of Detainees
Will the AFL-CIO Split? A Debate on the Future of Organized
Labor
Is Puerto Rico the Florida of 2004?
Intel Agent Strapped to Gurney and Flown Out of Iraq
by U.S. Army After Reporting Torture of Detainees
A veteran sergeant who told his commanding officers that
he witnessed his colleagues torturing Iraqi detainees was
strapped to a gurney and flown out of Iraq - even though there
was nothing wrong with him. We speak with the reporter - former
U.S. former U.S. Army counterintelligence agent David DeBatto
- who broke the story.
Over the past few weeks, the number of different account
of torture and abuse by the United States has been staggering.
Here is a quick run-down of some of the most recent:
- The Pentagon warned intelligence specialists as recently
as June not to report the abuse of Iraqi prisoners.
- FBI agents witnessed US soldiers abusing detainees at Guantanamo
Bay as early 2002 but the Pentagon did little to investigate
the complaints.
- New photographs emerge showing U.S. soldiers abusing Iraqi
detainees as early as May 2003.
- The U.S. government argues it has the right to use evidence
gained by torture in deciding whether to detain people at
Guantanamo Bay.
- U.S. generals in Iraq were warned more than a month before
the Abu Ghraib scandal emerged that detainees were being beaten
and abused in Iraq.
- The Red Cross accuses the U.S. pf physical and psychological
torture at Guantanamo.
- The US government is leasing a special Gulfstream Jet to
transport detained suspects to other nations that routinely
use torture in their prisons.
Those are just some of the latest accounts of torture and
abuse in the press over the last weeks. Over the next four
years, more are certain to emerge with the nomination of Alberto
Gonzales as Attorney General. Gonzales helped pave the legal
groundwork that led to the torture of detainees at Abu Ghraib.
In 2002 he claimed in a memo that the war on terrorism renders
obsolete portions of the Geneva Conventions.
But perhaps the most extraordinary story of torture and abuse
is the one we will hear about today.
On June 15, 2003, Sgt. Frank "Greg" Ford, a counterintelligence
agent in the National Guard stationed in Samarra told his
commanding officer, Capt. Victor Artiga, that he had witnessed
five incidents of torture and abuse of Iraqi detainees at
his base, and requested a formal investigation.
Thirty-six hours later, Ford, a 49-year-old with over 30
years of military service in the Coast Guard, Army and Navy,
was ordered by U.S. Army medical personnel to lie down on
a gurney. He was then strapped down, loaded onto a military
plane and medevac"d to a military medical center outside
the country - even though there was nothing wrong with him.
We are joined right now by the reporter who broke the story.
- David DeBatto, author and former U.S. Army counterintelligence
agent who served in Iraq. He is currently working on a a
four-part fiction series "CI Team Red: An Army Counterintelligence
Novel", which is due out in May 2005.
Will the AFL-CIO Split? A Debate on the Future of
Organized Labor
A handful of top national labor union leaders have threatened
to split away from the powerful AFL-CIO and set up a new labor
alliance unless the parent body adopts new policies to stem
decades of decline in union membership. We host a debate with
spokespeople from the Communications Workers of America and
Unite Here.
A major review of the organization and direction of the labor
movement is currently underway following President Bush"s
reelection. A meeting of major union leaders last month was
called by AFL-CIO president John Sweeney to debate the future
of the movement.
While all sides agreed something must be done to stem decades
of decline in union membership, there are sharp disagreements
over what strategy should be taken.
In an unprecedented move, the Service Employees International
Union (SEIU), Unite Here and others have banded together into
a group called the New Unity Partnership. They claim that
organized labor's current crisis is so profound that the union
movement can be saved only by a total overhaul of the AFL-CIO
and have threatened to split from the federation unless new
policies are adopted.
Andrew Stern, the president of SEIU, has promoted a 10-point
plan for change with a brochure, a sophisticated Web site
and a blog. Key to the plan is a proposal to consolidate the
AFL-CIO's 60 unions into fewer than 20 and for using the $25
million in yearly profits from its credit card program to
mount a nationwide campaign to unionize Wal-Mart to improve
workers" wages and benefits.
Today we host a debate on the future of organized labor.
- Chris Chafe, Chief of Staff and Political Director at
Unite Here.
- Bill Fletcher, President of TransAfrica.
He formally served as Education Director and Assistant to
the President of the AFL-CIO.
Is Puerto Rico the Florida of 2004?
The fight over Puerto Rico's gubernatorial election more
than a month ago has brought the issue of the island's official
relationship with the United States front and center once
again. We go to Puerto Rico to speak with independent political
analyst Juan Manuel Garcia-Passalacqua.
Some are calling it one of the most significant political
battles in Puerto Rico since the 1950s. But instead of bullets,
this time the battle is being fought with ballots. The fight
over Puerto Rico's gubernatorial election more than a month
ago has brought the issue of the island's official relationship
with the United States front and center once again. For some
observers, the election controversy in Puerto Rico evokes
images from the controversy surrounding Florida in the 2000
US election. There are multiple court battles, recounts and,
depending on who you ask, a lot at stake.
On one side of the official battle is the Popular Democratic
Party candidate Anibal Acevedo Vila, whose party favors the
status quo of free association with the United States. On
the other side is the New Progressive Party and its candidate,
former two-term Gov. Pedro Rossello. They favor US statehood
for Puerto Rico. Also in the mix are the tens of thousands
of Puerto Ricans who want full independence. When partial
election results were certified, Vila's party held a 3,800
vote lead. But Rossello's party cried foul and said that some
7,000 ballots had not been properly counted.
The contested votes are so-called double-split ballots that
have both a voter's mark under a party insignia and marks
for governor and resident commissioner from a different party.
The resident commissioner is Puerto Rico's nonvoting representative
in the U.S. Congress, a position held by Vila for the last
four years. Both parties have since also reported irregularities
at voting places, including one in the northern town of Guaynabo
where more ballots were cast than the number of registered
voters.
The NPP, the statehood party, says the split ballots should
not be counted. The PDP, which favors retaining Puerto Rico's
status as a U.S. territory, says they should be counted. Puerto
Rico's State Election Committee ruled they were valid votes
and should be counted, and the Puerto Rico Supreme Court ordered
them counted. But here is where a major twist enters the picture.
The United States District Court judge in San Juan said those
contested ballots must be separated from the recount, until
that same court determines whether they are valid. The case
now goes to the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston,
where a three-judge panel will hear arguments Monday regarding
whether the federal courts have jurisdiction in Puerto Rico's
election.
- Juan Manuel Garcia-Passalacqua, a Harvard-educated attorney
and independent political analyst in Puerto Rico. He hosts
one of the islands most popular radio programs, "Analyzing
With Juanma," on Noti Uno.
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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