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Bush Announces Renewed War on "Islamo-Facism,"
Rejects Demands for U.S. Troop Withdrawal From Iraq
Pentagon Analyst Pleads Guilty in AIPAC-Israeli Spy Case
UN Nuclear Watchdog ELBaradei Wins Nobel Peace Prize Months
After U.S. Tries To Force Him From Job as Head of IAEA
GE Strikes A Deal to Clean Up PCBs in the Hudson
Bush Announces Renewed War on "Islamo-Facism,"
Rejects Demands for U.S. Troop Withdrawal From Iraq
President Bush firmly rejected demands for a withdrawal
of US troops from Iraq and tried to refocus America's attention
on the threat from Islamic extremism. We speak with investigative
reporter Robert Dreyfuss, author of "Devil's Game: How
the United States Helped Unleash Fundamentalist Islam."
President Bush firmly rejected demands for a withdrawal
of US troops from Iraq and tried to refocus America's attention
on the threat from Islamic extremism.
In what the White House billed as a major speech, Bush addressed
the National Endowment for Democracy in Washington on Thursday.
He said the United States and its allies had disrupted 10
serious al Qaeda plots since 9/11, compared the war on terrorism
to the struggle against communism and outlined what he said
was a broad strategy by Muslim terrorists to dominate much
of the world.
- President Bush, October 6, 2005.
President Bush's speech was part of a White House effort
to rebuild waning support for the Iraq war amid an upsurge
of violence ahead of an October 15 vote on an Iraqi constitution.
In his speech, Bush sought to put the US occupation of Iraq
in a global context and praised what he called steps towards
democracy.
- President Bush, October 6, 2005.
President Bush speaking Thursday. The Shiite-led Iraqi government
recently reversed last-minute changes that made to the rules
for the October 15th vote on the constitution. On Sunday the
parliament had made changes that would have made it nearly
impossible for the Sunni minority to defeat the charter at
the polls.
- Robert Dreyfuss, investigative reporter. He is a contributing
editor at The Nation, a contributing writer at Mother Jones
and a senior correspondent for The American Prospect. His
book, "Devil's Game: How the United States Helped Unleash
Fundamentalist Islam" has just been published.
Pentagon Analyst Pleads Guilty in AIPAC-Israeli Spy
Case
Larry Franklin, a top Pentagon analyst, plead guilty to
handing over highly classified intelligence to members of
the pro-Israeli lobbying group the American Israel Public
Affairs Committee or AIPAC. Franklin also admitted for the
first time that he handed over top-secret information on Iran
directly to an Israeli government official in Washington.
We speak with investigative reporter, Robert Dreyfuss.
Earlier this week, a top Pentagon analyst plead guilty to
handing over highly classified intelligence to members of
the pro-Israeli lobbying group the American Israel Public
Affairs Committee or AIPAC. The official, Larry Franklin,
also admitted for the first time that he handed over top-secret
information on Iran directly to an Israeli government official
in Washington. Franklin said he personally met with an official
from the Israeli Embassy in Washington eight times. As part
of a plea agreement, Franklin pleaded guilty to two counts
of conspiracy and a third charge of possessing classified
documents. He faces up to 25 years in prison. Franklin has
agreed to testify against Steve Rosen and Keith Weissman,
the two former AIPAC officials, who are facing trial.
The FBI has been investigating AIPAC for more than 2 years,
looking into whether members of the organization helped to
illegally pass on highly classified intelligence to the Israeli
government. And as Robert Dreyfuss wrote in his article "Bigger
than AIPAC" published in August on ZNET, "It is
clear by probing the details of the case, the FBI has got
hold of a dangerous loose end of a much larger story. By pulling
the string hard enough, the FBI and the Justice Department
might just unravel the larger story, which is beginning to
look more and more like it involves the same nexus of Pentagon
civilians, White House functionaries and American Enterprise
Institute officials who thumped the drums of war in Iraq in
2001-2003 and who are trying to whip up an anti-Iranian frenzy
as well."
- Robert Dreyfuss, investigative reporter. He is a contributing
editor at The Nation, a contributing writer at Mother Jones
and a senior correspondent for The American Prospect. His
book, "Devil's Game: How the United States Helped Unleash
Fundamentalist Islam" has just been published.
UN Nuclear Watchdog ELBaradei Wins Nobel Peace Prize
Months After U.S. Tries To Force Him From Job as Head of IAEA
The International Atomic Energy Agency and its chief Mohamed
ElBaradei have won the 2005 Nobel Peace Prize for their efforts
to stop the spread of nuclear weapons. We speak with Phyllis
Bennis of the Institute of Policy Studies.
The announcement was made earlier today in Oslo Norway. The
Egyptian-born ElBaradei has served as Director General of
the IAEA since 1997. He won the prize just months after the
United States tried to force him from his job after the Bush
administration repeatedly clashed with him over Iraq and Iran.
In February 2003 – a month before the U.S. invasion
– ElBaradei told the United Nations that nuclear experts
had found no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. He said
“We have to date found no evidence of ongoing prohibited
nuclear or nuclear-related activities in Iraq.” John
Bolton – who is now the US ambassador to the United
Nations – responded by saying this is “impossible
to believe.” Vice President Dick Cheney said “I
think Mr. ElBaradei frankly is wrong.” But it turned
out ElBaradei was correct. He was also correct when he publicly
cast doubt on President Bush's claim that Iraq was purchasing
tons of enriched uranium from Niger for a nuclear weapons
program. Days before the U.S. invasion, ElBaradei revealed
that the U.S. had relied on fabricated documents to come to
that conclusion.
Now the U.S. and ElBaradei are at odds again. This time it
is over Iran. ElBaradei says the IAEA has no evidence that
Iran has a nuclear weapons program. But the Bush administration
rejects this view and went so far as to spy on him in an attempt
try to block his re-election. Last year the Washington Post
revealed that the U.S. listened in on dozens of phone calls
between ElBaradei and Iranian diplomats in search of ammunition
to use against him. When his re-election was initially put
for a vote, 34 nations agreed to keep him as head of the IAEA
and only the U.S. expressed opposition. ElBaradei has also
called on Israel to disarm its secret nuclear weapons program
and called for a nuclear-free Middle East. Last year in an
interview with the New York Times he warned “"If
the world does not change course, we risk self-destruction.”
- Phyllis Bennis, Fellow at the Institute
for Policy Studies in Washington DC, specializing in
Middle East and United Nations issues. She is the author
of the book “Before and After: U.S. Foreign Policy
and the September 11th Crisis.”
GE Strikes A Deal to Clean Up PCBs in the Hudson
Federal authorities and General Electric have struck a deal
on dredging polychlorinated biphenyl, or PCB, contaminated
sediment from the Hudson River. We have a discussion between
an EPA administrator and an attorney from Riverkeeper.
Over the years, GE dumped an estimated 1.3 million pounds
of PCBs into the Hudson before the Federal government banned
the substance in 1977. The chemicals came from GE's plants
in Fort Edward and Hudson Falls. PCBs are classified as a
probable cause of cancer.
The dredging is now scheduled to begin in 2007 and yesterday's
settlement calls for GE to pay the government up to $78 million
for costs of the clean-up. The EPA called the settlement “a
historic agreement” and GE said in a statement to the
Associated Press that the deal shows that it is committed
to working with environmental regulators and the state.”
But environmental groups have criticized the agreement pointing
out that it only requires GE to pay for 10 percent of the
clean-up.
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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