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Report from Inside New Orleans Hospital: "Who is Left
Behind?...The Sickest, The Oldest, The Poorest, The Youngest"
Journalists Under Fire in Iraq: Reuters Chief Debates Pentagon
Over Slain and Detained Media Workers
The Day Casey Died: Cindy Sheehan, Journalist and Wounded
Soldier Remember the Battle of Sadr City
Report from Inside New Orleans Hospital: "Who
is Left Behind?...The Sickest, The Oldest, The Poorest, The
Youngest"
As the devastation left in the wake of hurricane Katrina
continues to unfold, we go to New Orleans to speak with law
professor Bill Quigley of Loyola University. Quigley, who
is volunteering at Memorial Hospital, said, "The people
who are in New Orleans are - in all honesty - dying and there
could be a lot more casualties unless there's a lot of help,
real fast." [includes rush
transcript]
New Orleans and the Gulf region remain in a state of catastrophe
following the devastating Hurricane Katrina. At least 80 percent
of New Orleans is underwater. The city has no electricity
and little drinkable water. Officials say New Orleans will
be uninhabitable for weeks. On Tuesday two levees broke, flooding
areas of the city that had appeared to survive the storm.
The total number killed in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama
remains unknown but officials fear it will be several hundred.
Officials in Harrison County in Mississippi say at least 100
people died there mostly in the cities of Biloxi and Gulfport.
At least 30 people died at a single housing complex in Biloxi
known as the Quiet Water Beach apartments. Thousands of homes
in the region were destroyed including the oceanfront home
of Mississippi Senator Trent Lott.
The governor of Louisiana Kathleen Blanco has ordered the
entire city of New Orleans to be evacuated.
On Tuesday the city's mayor Ray Nagin had to be airlifted
from City Hall due to the rising waters. Officials are now
planning to evacuate everyone inside the SuperDome where at
least 20,000 have sought refuge. The emergency generators
at the sports complex are now failing, there is no air conditioning
and the building is surrounded by water.
Meanwhile both city airports are underwater. The staff of
the city's newspaper the Times-Picayune had to flee its newsroom
Tuesday due to the rising waters. The paper has been forced
to publish only electronic versions of its newspaper. The
city's main public hospital is no longer functioning and being
evacuated. The U.S. military is reportedly helping to evacuate
more than 1,000 people from Tulane University Hospital.
Doctors are also concerned about the possibility of outbreaks
of disease spread through sewage contamination of drinking
water, spoiled food, insects, and bites from snakes and other
animals.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency is making unprecedented
preparations to house at least 1 million people in the region
whose houses were damaged or destroyed. FEMA's Bill Lokey
called the hurricane "the most significant natural disaster
to hit the United States."
The Pentagon has ordered five Navy ships and eight Navy maritime
rescue teams to the Gulf Coast to bolster relief operations.
Swift boat rescue teams are being flown in from California.
While the National Guard has been taking part in rescue operations
and law enforcement, some 6,000 members of the Louisiana and
Mississippi Guard have been forced to watch the catastrophe
from 7,000 miles away in Iraq. 40 percent of Mississippi's
National Guard force and 35 percent of Louisiana's is in Iraq.
Over the past eight months 23 members of the Louisiana National
Guard have died in Iraq - only New York's Guard unit has suffered
as many deaths.
The Times-Picayune reported the catastrophic flooding is
expected to worsen over the next few days after rainfall from
the hurricane flows into Lake Pontchartain from upstream rivers
and streams. With the levees broke, the water will keep rising
in the city of New Orleans until it is at same level as the
lake and Mississippi River.
President Bush announced he would cut short his vacation
by two days and return to Washington today. He spoke on Tuesday
in San Diego.
"Right now our priority is on saving lives and we are
still in the midst of search and rescue operations,"
Bush said.
During Bush's appearance in San Diego he also took the time
to briefly play guitar while with country singer Country Singer
Mark Wills. Bush is expected to fly to Louisiana on Friday
to tour parishes ravaged by the hurricane.
On the streets of New Orleans martial law has been declared.
There have been reports of looting including many people breaking
into stores in search of food and drinkable water. Others
took electronics, alcohol and guns. The Times Picayune reported
the looting was so widespread that even police officers took
part. One uniform officer was photographed carrying six DVDs
outside a Wal-Mart. Another was seen carrying a 27-inch TV.
Katrina is expected to become the costliest hurricane ever
- more than Hurricane Andrew which cost $21 billion.
The hurricane is already affecting the nation's economy.
Most of the oil and gas production facilities in the Gulf
of Mexico have been shut off since Monday and many sustained
damage. The area normally accounts for a third of domestic
oil production and a fifth of its natural gas output. The
cost of gasoline is expected to soon rise to about three dollars
a gallon in many parts of the country. Areas including Atlanta
may also face severe gas shortages. The two main pipelines
that bring gas and jet fuel to Atlanta are down. The region
now only has a two-day supply of gasoline.
Questions are also being raised if the federal government
could have done more to protect the region from the deadly
flooding. In 1995 Congress authorized the Southeast Louisiana
Urban Flood Control Project. Over the past decade the Army
Corps of Engineers has spent $430 million on shoring up levees
and building pumping stations. But another $250 million in
work remained. According to press accounts, the federal funding
largely froze up in 2003. Over the past two years the Times-Picayune
paper has run at least nine articles that cite the cost of
the Iraq invasion as a reason for the lack of hurricane and
flood control funding. Earlier this year President Bush proposed
significantly reducing the amount of federal money for the
project. He proposed spending $10 million. Local officials
said six times as much money was needed.
- Bill Quigley, law professor at Loyola University in New
Orleans who is volunteering at Memorial Hospital.
Journalists Under Fire in Iraq: Reuters Chief Debates
Pentagon Over Slain and Detained Media Workers
In the latest assault on media workers in Iraq, U.S. forces
shoot dead a Reuters new agency soundman and order a Reuters
cameraman to be held without charge for six months in Abu
Ghraib. We host a debate with David Schlesinger, Global Managing
Editor of the Reuters News Agency and Lt. Col. Steven Boylan,
spokesperson for the U.S. military in Iraq and Director of
Combined Press Information Center.
A cameraman for Reuters in Iraq has been ordered by a secret
tribunal to be held without charge in Abu Ghraib prison until
his case is reviewed within six months.
Ali Omar Abrahem al-Mashhadani was arrested by U.S. forces
on August 8 after a search of his home in the city of Ramadi.
The U.S. military has so far refused Reuters requests to disclose
why he is being held. He has not been charged.
U.S. military spokesperson Major General Rick Lynch responded
to questions from journalists about the detention of Ali al-Mashhadani.
- Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, U.S. military spokesperson.
Meanwhile, journalists' organizations have called for the
immediate release of Mashhadani.
- Ismael Zayer, chairman of the Iraqi Union of Journalists.
The news of al-Mashhadani's detention comes just three days
after U.S. forces in Iraq shot dead a Reuters new agency soundman.
On Sunday, Whaleed Khaled died of several bullet wounds to
the head and chest. He was shot while on assignment covering
the killing of two policemen in Hay al-Adil. Cameraperson
Haider Khadem was also wounded in the attack and then detained
by U.S. troops for questioning.
As many as 67 journalists and media workers have been killed
in Iraq since the U.S. invasion began in March 2003. Two Reuters
camera people have been killed by U.S. troops in Iraq since
the U.S. invasion in 2003. A third was shot dead by a sniper
in Ramadi last November in circumstances for which Reuters
is still seeking an explanation from U.S. forces.
U.S. ambassador to Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad responded to the
killing of Whaleed Khaled on Tuesday.
- Zalmay Khalilzad, U.S. ambassador to Iraq.
We host a debate with the Global Managing Editor of Reuters
and spokesperson for the U.S. military in Iraq.
- David Schlesinger Global Managing Editor of the Reuters
News Agency.
- Lt. Col. Steven Boylan, spokesperson for the U.S. military
in Iraq and Director of Combined Press Information Center.
The Day Casey Died: Cindy Sheehan, Journalist and
Wounded Soldier Remember the Battle of Sadr City
On the last day of Cindy Sheehan's vigil outside President
Bush's estate in Crawford, we look back at the day her son,
Casey, died. We speak with a U.S. army soldier who was wounded
on the same day Casey was killed, an independent journalist
who viaited the area shortly afterwards and Cindy Sheehan.
[includes rush
transcript - partial]
President Bush's vacation is officially over this week, as
he returns to Washington. And there is little doubt that his
time these past weeks at his Crawford, Texas estate will forever
be remembered as the summer of Camp Casey, named for 24 year-old
Casey Sheehan who was killed in Baghdad's Sadr city on April
4, 2004. By now, you'd have to be living in a news vacuum
to not know the name Cindy Sheehan, Casey's mother, who set
up a lawn chair down the road from Bush's property at the
beginning of the president's 5 week vacation to demand that
she be allowed to speak directly to Bush. What grew out of
that simple act was an antiwar tent city of sorts that has
seen a stream of visitors. Among them: families with soldiers
deployed in Iraq or who had their loved ones killed there,
veterans of the current Iraq war, musicians Joan Baez and
Steve Earle, actors Martin Sheen, Margot Kidder and Native
activist and actor Russel Means. Scores of activists and other
concerned or inspired people have joined the camp at various
points. There have been literally hundreds of journalists
in Crawford; among them, the celebrities from the White House
press corps. There have also been counter-demonstrators and
prowar families.
Over these weeks, Cindy Sheehan's vigil has served as an
igniting spark for the antiwar movement and has provided a
gateway into a broader discussion across the US on the occupation
of Iraq. Well, as Cindy Sheehan prepares to leave Camp Casey
in Crawford, we wanted to focus in on the story of her son
and his death more than a year ago in Baghdad's Sadr city.
In fact, Casey Sheehan was killed on Sunday, April 4, 2004
and that Monday on Democracy Now!, we reported on the battle
in which he was killed.
- Democracy Now broadcast, April 5, 2004.
President Bush and his supporters have sought to portray
the resistance in Iraq as foreign fighters, terrorists, Saddam
loyalists and al Qaeda. But the death of Casey Sheehan gives
lie to that line.
- Cindy Sheehan, talking recently about how her son died.
In a moment, we are going to be joined by a U.S. soldier
who was in Sadr City that same day as Casey Sheehan. He didn't
die but he was severely wounded that day and is now paralyzed
from the chest down. But first, here is what President Bush
had to say the first time he was asked publicly about the
uprising in Sadr City that took the life of Casey Sheehan
and 9 other soldiers.
- President Bush, April 5, 2004.
At the time Casey Sheehan and his fellow soldiers were killed
in Sadr City, independent journalist and author Rahul Mahajan
was in Iraq and reported on Democracy Now! about his time
in Sadr City that weekend talking with US soldiers.
- Rahul Mahajan, speaking on Democracy Now!, April 13,
2004.
U.S. Army Specialist Tomas Young fought in the same division
as Casey Sheehan and was shot during the massive uprising
in Sadr City on April 4th 2004 - The same date and place that
Cindy Sheehan's son Casey was killed. Young is now paralyzed
from the chest down. He recently left Camp Casey where he
also demanded to speak with President Bush.
- Tomas Young, U.S. Army Specialist and Iraq War Veteran.
- Rahul Mahajan, independent journalist and author of a
number of books including "Full Spectrum Dominance:
U.S. Power in Iraq and Beyond." He runs a blog at empirenotes.org.
- 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.
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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