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Is Global Warming Causing More Devastating Hurricanes Worldwide?
Pro-Bush Counter Protesters Rally in Crawford
Military Mothers Call for Troop Pullout on Last Weekend of
Camp Casey
The Posada Files: El Paso Judge to Determine Whether Bay
of Pigs Was Terrorist Act
Is Global Warming Causing More Devastating Hurricanes
Worldwide?
Hurricane Katrina forced a mass evacuation of New Orleans
and may leave up to a million people homeless. As this unprecedented
storm deluges the South, we look at new evidence that human-induced
global warming is causing the increased strength of tropical
storms. [includes rush
transcript]
Hurricane Katrina was downgraded from a level five to a
level four storm just before it made landfall in Louisiana
this morning. The storm is judged by weather experts to have
the strongest central force, or intensity, of any recorded
storm in the United States except the Labor Day Hurricane
of 1935. Torrential rains are inundating the coast and winds
around 250 kilometers per hour are ripping through New Orleans.
The massive storm prompted an unprecedented evacuation of
the city.
- Ray Nagin, Mayor of New Orleans
The city of New Orleans is below sea level and faces major
flooding from Hurricane Katrina. More than half a million
people have been ordered to evacuate the city and the storm
could leave up to one million people homeless.
President Bush declared a state of emergency for Louisiana
and Mississippi over the weekend. Federal emergency workers
are preparing staging centers to deal with the fallout of
the storm.
As Katrina pounds New Orleans, we are going to look at how
this storm compares to others that have hit the United States
and at the link between climate change and hurricane strength.
Tropical storms may be growing in overall intensity due to
human-induced global warming, according to a new study by
leading hurricane researcher Kerry Emanuel. His report, which
has generated controversy among climate specialists, was published
earlier this month in the journal Nature. Emanuel looked comprehensively
at storm data since the mid-1970s and concluded that the destructive
power of hurricanes has nearly doubled over the past three
decades at least partially because of human-induced global
warming. Critics of the study say hurricanes are not intensifying
and that the cause of the rising ocean temperature is natural,
not human-made.
- Kerry Emanuel, Professor of Meteorology at the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology. He authored the study in "Nature"
on the link between human-induced global warming and increasing
hurricane strength. His new book is called "Divine
Wind: The History and Science of Hurricanes."
Pro-Bush Counter Protesters Rally in Crawford
The last weekend of Cindy Sheehan's vigil outside President
Bush's property in Crawford drew more than fifteen hundred
people for an anti-Bush protest. Also in Crawford were two
thousand Bush supporters. We hear from a pro-Bush military
mother and the owner of a Bush memorobilia store in Crawford.
This weekend was the culmination of the anti war protest
started by Cindy Sheehan near President Bush's vacation ranch
in Crawford Texas. Cindy Sheehan is the mother of son Casey
who was a solider killed in Iraq last year. In early August
she went to Crawford Texas and vowed to stay there until President
Bush met with her to discuss the justification for the war.
Over the past month Cindy has been joined by thousands of
mothers, wives, family members, veterans and supporters who
have camped out at two different sites dubbed Camp Casey One
and Two. Camp Casey Two, which is in a field donated by a
local landowner, is at the edge of the Bush ranch. On Saturday,
thousands came there for a rally and barbeque to protest the
war and Bush's policies in Iraq. In a moment we'll here the
voices of some of those who spoke at the rally.
About two thousand supporters of the war also came to Crawford
and held their own rally at the local community center on
Saturday. They also lined up across the road from Camp Casey
One creating a tense standoff between the two groups for most
of the day. A handful of people were arrested from both sides
of the political spectrum.
On Sunday, Reverend Al Sharpton came to Camp Casey to meet
with Sheehan as did actor Martin Sheen. Sharpton said that
he felt it was his "moral obligation to stand and to
be courageous with these families, and particularly Cindy,
that have become the conscience of this nation.
Sheehan and her supporters have attracted international attention
for their protest and have galvanized the anti -war movement
in these dog days of summer. And though Bush has so far refused
to meet Cindy, she has forced him to repeatedly defend the
war in light of polls showing dwindling support for his handling
of the war and increased skepticism of the rationale for the
invasion. Bush spoke in Utah and Idaho earlier this week and
yesterday at his ranch in Crawford where he insisted that
America's actions in the Middle East were making the nation
safer.
- President Bush, speaking Sunday
President Bush speaking at his ranch in Crawford, Texas yesterday
where just down the road thousands had gathered to protest
Bush's policies in Iraq and to demand that the troops be brought
home.
Sheehan has also drawn the condemnation of the right-wing
media and some supporters of the war in Iraq. The conservative
group, Move America Forward also mobilized their supporters
and organized a multi-city "You don't speak for me, Cindy,"
Campaign which started off in San Francisco and ended in Crawford
on Saturday. Move America Forward is based in Sacramento and
was started by California Republicans and staff members of
the public relations firm Russo Marsh and Rogers, which has
strong ties to the Republican Party. They are the same group
that organized the "Truth Tour" in Iraq earlier
this summer, which brought six conservative talk show hosts
to Iraq to counter what they say was the bad news being spread
by the mainstream media about the U.S. occupation.
Deborah Johns, who has a son that served in Iraq, led the
"You don't speak for me, Cindy" tour. She is also
featured in ads produced by Move America Forward. After the
pro-war rally, Johns came to Camp Casey One and removed some
names from a memorial of dead soldiers' crosses that had been
erected by Sheehan and her supporters. Johns said that the
families had contacted her and asked that their childrens'
names be removed because they do not agree with Sheehan"
protest.
- Deborah Johns, her son served in Iraq
Democracy Now!'s Yoruba Richen talked to Bill Johnson who
is the owner of the Yellow Rose in Crawford, a store that
boasts the largest collection of George W. Bush paraphernalia
in the country. Johnson also helped organized the pro-war
rally that took place on Saturday.
- Bill Johnson, counter-protest organizer and owner of
the Yellow Rose in Crawford
Military Mothers Call for Troop Pullout on Last Weekend
of Camp Casey
Cindy Sheehan and other military mothers spoke at a mass
rally during the last weekend of Bush's vacation - and the
last weekend of Camp Casey.
Sheehan and her supporters have attracted international attention
for their protest and have galvanized the anti-war movement
in these dog days of summer. And though Bush has so far refused
to meet Cindy, she has forced him to repeatedly defend the
war in light of polls showing dwindling support for his handling
of the war and increased skepticism of the rationale for the
invasion.
- Cindy Sheehan, mother of soldier killed in Iraq and founder
of Camp Casey in honor of her son Casey Sheehan who was
killed in Iraq in April, 2004. She is also a co-founder
of Gold Star Families for
Peace.
- Amy Branham and Jane Bright, both had sons who died in
Iraq. They spoke at the Camp Casey rally on Saturday.
The Posada Files: El Paso Judge to Determine Whether
Bay of Pigs Was Terrorist Act
Cuban-born former CIA operative Luis Posada Carriles is
facing a deportation hearing El Paso today. The judge will
look at Posada's record to determine whether he should get
asylum in the United States. Protests around the U.S. and
Canada are calling for Posada's extradition to Venezuela for
masterminding the 1976 bombing of a Cuban airliner.
We turn now to the latest in the case of Cuban-born former
CIA operative Luis Posada Carriles, the man identified by
Havana as a leading anti-Castro terrorist. Posada has a deportation
hearing today. El Paso Immigration Judge William Abbott will
look at whether Posada entered the country illegally in March.
Posada is wanted internationally for a slew of crimes against
the Cuban government and president Fidel Castro. The Venezuelan
government is currently demanding Posada's extradition. So
far Washington has refused to turn him over, saying that Caracas
is in the service of Fidel Castro.
Also at stake in today's hearing is whether the failed 1961
Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba should be considered an act of
U.S. terrorism. Judge Abbott asked lawyers in the case to
prepare briefs on whether Posada provided material support
for terrorist activities. He participated in the Bay of Pigs
invasion as a CIA operative. Posada is also accused of orchestrating
the 1976 bombing of a Cubana Airlines plane, killing 73 people
including the entire Cuban Olympic fencing team.
Protests in support of Posada's extradition are being held
around the United States and Canada today to coincide with
the hearing. We go now to three of the participants in the
demonstration outside the El Paso courthouse.
- Roseanne Nenninger, sister of Raymond Persaud, who died
in the 1976 bombing of the Cubana airliner while he was
on his way to attend medical school in Cuba. She was 11-years-old
at the time of Raymond's death.
- Almudena Bernabeu, attorney with the San Francisco-based
Center for Justice and Accountability.
She is representing the Persaud family in a possible lawsuit
against Posada in relation to the death of Raymond Persaud.
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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