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Palestinian Elections "Taking Place Under Continued
Heel of Israel's Military Tyranny"
Historic Peace Deal in Sudan Marred by Ongoing Violence in
Darfur
Is the U.S. Organizing Salvador-Style Death Squads in Iraq?
Indonesia Flies al Qaeda-Linked Groups into Aceh
Palestinian Elections "Taking Place Under Continued
Heel of Israel's Military Tyranny"
Mahmoud Abbas has claimed victory in the Palestinian presidential
elections this weekend. We speak with Ali Abunimah, founder
of Electronic Intifada, who says, "Many Palestinians
fear this is another setup so when the inevitable failure
brought about by Israeli intransigence occurs, this will be
another opportunity to blame the Palestinians, and accuse
them of missing an opportunity once again."
Mahmoud Abbas has claimed victory in the second-ever Palestinian
presidential election in the occupied West Bank, Gaza Strip
and East Jerusalem. Though official results will not be released
until later today, Abbas, the frontrunner and the chairman
of the Palestine Liberation Organization, appeared to receive
65 percent of the vote.
Addressing hundreds of at a rally in the West Bank town of
Ramallah, he said: "I present this victory to the soul
of Yasser Arafat and present it to our people, to our martyrs
and to 11,000 prisoners" in Israeli jails.
International monitors said the ballot appeared to have been
fair despite problems with registration, heavy turnout and
the turning away of hundreds of voters from a big Israeli-run
polling station in East Jerusalem.
The elections commission said that around 70 percent of the
1.28 million registered voters cast their ballots. But Agence
France Presse reports that only around 10 percent of the other
700,000 Palestinians who were not on the register but who
could still vote by presenting their identity card did so.
That would leave the overall turnout among people eligible
to vote below 50 percent.
Pro-democracy activist and independent candidate Mustafa
Barghouthi came in second with about 20 percent of the votes.
At a press conference, Barghouti warned that that Palestinian
security forces and others may have cast multiple ballots:
- Mustafa Barghouti: "So far, til five o clock or
actually til 5:30 maybe, nobody could vote without having
their name in the registration lists. After 5:30 the central
election commission have informed orally and practised and
allowed voting in several election places without being
registered in the list. This means there is a very serious
risk that people could vote more than once."
Meanwhile, the militant group Hamas says it will work with
Abbas despite previously calling for a boycott of the vote.
Historic Peace Deal in Sudan Marred by Ongoing Violence
in Darfur
The Sudanese government and southern rebel groups signed
a comprehensive peace agreement Sunday, ending Africa's longest-running
civil war. The treaty did not cover a separate conflict in
the western Darfur region, which has left some 70,000 people
dead and 2 million displaced. We speak with Salih Booker of
Africa Action.
The Sudanese government and southern rebel groups signed
a comprehensive peace agreement Sunday, ending Africa's longest-running
civil war.
Sudan's First Vice President Ali Osman Mohamed Taha and rebel
leader John Garang signed the accord in Kenya's capital Nairobi,
ending a 21-year conflict that has killed an estimated 2 million
people mainly by famine and disease.
Under the agreement, the ruling National Congress party and
the southern rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement will
form an interim coalition government, decentralize power,
share oil revenues and integrate the military. Starting in
July, the south will be autonomous for six years and will
then vote in a referendum to decide whether to remain part
of Sudan, or become independent.
The treaty did not cover a separate conflict in the western
Darfur region, where almost two years of fighting have created
what the United Nations calls one of the world's worst humanitarian
crises. Secretary of State Colin Powell, who attended the
signing, urged Khartoum to move quickly toward ending the
Darfur crisis which has left 70,000 people dead and 2 million
displaced.
Is the U.S. Organizing Salvador-Style Death Squads
in Iraq?
The U.S. government is reportedly considering setting up
assassination squads to target leaders of the Iraqi resistance.
We speak with journalist and activist Allan Nairn whose 1984
article in The Progressive Magazine titled "Behind the
Death Squads" exposed the CIA's backing of El Salvador
death squads and led to an investigation by the Senate Intelligence
Committee.
As violence in Iraq continues into 2005, the U.S. government
is considering setting up assassination squads to target leaders
of the Iraqi resistance. Newsweek Magazine is reporting
that the Pentagon is drawing up possible proposals to send
special forces teams to advise, support and train hand-picked
Iraqi squads to target Sunni rebels.
Within the Pentagon, the tactic is named "The Salvador
option" after the strategy that was secretly employed
by Ronald Reagan's administration to combat the guerrilla
insurgency in El Salvador in the early 1980s. The U.S.-backed
death squads hunted down and assassinated rebel leaders and
their supporters.
The current US ambassador in Iraq is John Negroponte. As
ambassador to Honduras, Negroponte played a key role in coordinating
US covert aid to the Contras who targeted civilians in Nicaragua
and shoring up a CIA-backed death squad in Honduras.
The Newsweek report says the Iraqi squads would most likely
be made up of Kurdish Peshmerga fighters and Shiite militiamen
and could even operate across the Syrian border. It is also
still unclear whether Pentagon or the CIA would take responsibility
for the squads.
We are joined right now by journalist and activist Allan
Nairn. In 1984, his article in The Progressive Magazine entitled
"Behind the Death Squads" [Download
pdf] exposed the CIA"s backing of El Salvador death
squads and led to an investigation by the Senate Intelligence
Committee.
- Allan Nairn, investigative journalist and activist. To
read Allan's reports, go to: newsc.blogspot.com.
Indonesia Flies al Qaeda-Linked Groups into Aceh
As Jakarta seeks U.S. military aid on the grounds of fighting
terrorism, the Indonesian military, which has backed al Qaeda-linked
groups that have killed civilians, is now bringing them into
Aceh, ostensibly to help with tsunami relief.
This is occurring even as Acehnese NGOs and activists are
being harassed by the military when they attempt to help the
tsunami victims. Some charge Indonesia is bringing in these
groups to galvanize international support for the brutal Indonesia
military.
- Allan Nairn, investigative journalist and activist. To
read Allan's reports, go to: newsc.blogspot.com.
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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