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Dahr Jamail on Iraqi Hospitals Under Occupation, War Profiteering
and the "Brain Drain" Out of Iraq
Human Rights on the Border: A Debate on Undocumented Migration
in Arizona
Remembering Rainbow Warrior: How French President Mitterrand
Personally Approved the Attack on Greenpeace 20 Years Ago
Dahr Jamail on Iraqi Hospitals Under Occupation,
War Profiteering and the "Brain Drain" Out of Iraq
As dozens of people are killed in suicide bombings and attacks
in Iraq, we speak with independent journalist Dahr Jamail
about his new report, "Iraqi Hospitals Ailing Under Occupation,"
the "brain drain" out of Iraq and the difference
in the media's coverage of the repeated attacks in Iraq and
last week's London bombings. [includes rush
transcript]
Millions of people across Europe are observing a two-minutes
silence today to remember the victims of last week's London
bombings. At least 52 people were killed and 700 injured in
the blasts.
But few people remember that just three days after the bombings
last Thursday, a series of suicide attacks in Iraq left 48
people dead - an eerily similar death toll to London - and
the difference in the world's reaction was tangible. The Iraq
attacks did not make it to the front-pages of newspapers across
the globe, governments around the world did not universally
condemn the attacks and the victims received few words of
consolation.
Since last week, dozens more people have been killed in Iraq.
Yesterday a massive car bombing in Baghdad killed 27 people
- almost all of them children. An American soldier was also
killed in the blast. Elsewhere in the capital, another dozen
Sunni Muslims were found dead after being arrested by Iraqi
police over the weekend.
Meanwhile a new study from an Iraqi humanitarian organization
is estimating that 128,000 Iraqis have been killed since the
U.S. invaded in March 2003 - over half of them women and children.
And Iraq's Interior Ministry told The New York Times today
that over 8,000 civilians have been killed in insurgent attacks
between August and May.
- Dahr Jamail, an independent journalist who spent many
months in Iraq. He just returned from the World Tribunal
on Iraq in Turkey. He also attended the Alternative G8 meeting
in Scotland.
Human Rights on the Border: A Debate on Undocumented
Migration in Arizona
Unauthorized patrol groups like the Minutemen are raising
questions of who polices the U.S.-Mexico border. A new wave
of anti-immigrant advocates in the Southwest and in Washington
want a crackdown on undocumented migration. But the U.S. economy
depends on migrant workers and migrants depend on U.S. jobs
to support their families in Mexico and Central America. We
host a debate on immigration.
President Bush has called the unauthorized groups patrolling
the U.S.-Mexico border "vigilantes." But California
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger praised the so-called Minutemen
and Texas Governor Rick Perry refused a proposal by Democratic
state lawmakers to block the Minutemen from operating in that
state.
Roughly 700,000 undocumented migrants enter the country annually
and remain here. A recent RAND Corporation study found that
immigrants to the United States inject about $10 billion a
year into the economy. But the latest anti-immigrant backlash
is latching onto the war on terrorism to renew a call for
increased policing at the border.
Arizona Senator John McCain has supported limited amnesty
for undocumented migrants already in the country in addition
to increased border security. His bipartisan immigration reform
bill would increase money for the border patrol. McCain spoke
yesterday before the Senate.
- Sen. John McCain, (R - Arizona)
Legislators in the Congressional Immigration Reform Caucus,
led by Colorado Republican Tom Tancredo, also raise the threat
of terrorism as a justification for more security at the border.
But they oppose any amnesty plan and Tancredo's opposition
to any guest worker program puts him at odds with agribusiness
and most of the Republican party. A growing strain of anti-immigrant
sentiment on Capitol Hill uses cultural arguments against
immigration that draw on previous measures like Proposition
187 in California, which would have denied basic services
to undocumented residents, and English Only initiatives around
the country.
Back on the border, the summer heat can be lethal to people
trying to cross into the United States. An Arizona human rights
group records the border deaths for May and June at 57 people.
Two aid workers were arrested on the Arizona border last
weekend. Members of the Stop the Deaths Coalition were detained
by border patrol agents while they were driving severely dehydrated
migrants to a hospital. Daniel Strauss and Shanti Sellz were
charged with obstruction of justice and aiding and abetting
illegal immigrants in furtherance of their illegal residence
in the country.
The question of who polices the U.S.-Mexico border has gained
national attention through the activities of the Minutemen
throughout the Southwest. Border Patrol officials in Arizona
say the Minutemen and groups like them should not take on
the role of professional law enforcement. There are dangers
that the self-proclaimed patrols could trip sensors, disturb
draglines and interfere with the normal operations of border
control agents. Minutemen Jim Gilchrist says the group is
"there to assist law enforcement."
In Yuma, Arizona, a group called the Yuma Patriots formed
recently and now includes about forty people who patrol small
sections of the border unarmed and call the Border Patrol
when they site border crossers. Part of the border in Yuma
is contained within the Cocopah Indian reservation and the
Patriots initially attempted to operate within the reservation.
The tribal council says it does not recognize the Yuma Patriots
because they are not an authorized extension of the Border
Patrol. Now the group engages in its activities outside the
reservation boundaries.
- Michael Scherer, writer for Mother Jones magazine. He
has an article in the July/August edition of on the Minutemen
operating in Arizona and Tom Tancredo's immigration reform
proposals in Washington.
- Shanti Sellz, member of No
More Deaths, an aid group that provides medical help
to migrants in the border zone. She was one of the two people
arrested by the border patrol last weekend while transporting
severely dehydrated border crossers to a hospital.
- Flash Sharrar, founder of the Yuma Patriots, an unofficial
group patrolling the border for undocumented migrants.
- Jose Matus, Yaqui ceremonial leader and border rights
activist with the Arizona Border Rights Project.
Remembering Rainbow Warrior: How French President
Mitterrand Personally Approved the Attack on Greenpeace 20
Years Ago
Twenty years ago, the Greenpeace flagship Rainbow Warrior
was bombed by French government agents and sunk in a harbor
in Auckland, New Zealand. The French newspaper Le Monde recently
revealed that the late French President Francois Mitterrand
personally approved the sinking of the ship. We speak with
David Robie, an independent journalist who was on board the
ship and wrote the book "Eyes of Fire: The Last Voyage
of the Rainbow Warrior."
Twenty years ago, the Greenpeace flagship Rainbow Warrior
was bombed by French government agents and sunk in a harbor
in Auckland, New Zealand. The ship was preparing to head to
sea to protest against French nuclear bomb tests in the South
Pacific. Greenpeace photographer Fernando Pereira was killed
in the attack.
Last weekend, the French newspaper Le Monde revealed that
the late French President Francois Mitterrand personally approved
the sinking of the ship. The paper obtained a handwritten
account of the operation written by the former head of France's
spy agency, Steve Lacoste. Lacoste describes his meeting with
Mitterrand two months before the attack. At that meeting,
he asked Mitterrand for permission to conduct the bombing.
Lacoste wrote that Mitterrand "gave me his consent while
emphasizing the importance he placed on the nuclear tests."
Two members of the 13 person French secret service team that
carried out the bombing were arrested two days later. Dominique
Prieur and Alain Marfart were sentenced to ten years in prison
but were extradited to French Polynesia, where they served
less than three. Others who carried out the bombing have apparently
escaped punishment. The man who coordinated the operation,
Louis Pierre Dillais- a former lieutenant-colonel in the French
Secret Service, is now living in Washington D.C and working
for the giant Belgian Arms Maker FH Herstal. The company sells
weapons to the United States Special Forces and to New Zealand's
defense forces.
- David Robie journalist and author of the book "Eyes
of Fire: The Last Voyage of the Rainbow Warrior." He
is also an associate professor in Auckland University of
Technology's School of Communication Studies.
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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