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Hamas Wins Sweeping Victory in Palestinian Parliamentary
Elections
How Israel and the United States Helped to Bolster Hamas
U.S. Soldier Convicted of Murder Receives No Jail Time While
Nonviolent Antiwar Protesters Sentenced to Six Months in Prison
Hamas Wins Sweeping Victory in Palestinian Parliamentary
Elections
In the Occupied Territories, unofficial results indicate
Hamas has won a sweeping victory in the first Palestinian
parliamentary elections in a decade. Israel and the United
States have said they would not deal with a Palestinian Authority
that includes Hamas. We speak with Mouin Rabbani, senior Middle
East analyst with the International Crisis Group about the
surprise result. [includes rush
transcript]
In the Occupied Territories, initial results indicate Hamas
has won a sweeping victory in the Palestinian parliamentary
elections. Unofficial results show Hamas took almost all of
the 16 constituencies in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. It
had particular success in the Jerusalem district, where the
group won all four seats allocated for Muslim candidates.
Official results are expected later today.
- Ismaeel Abu Haniya, Hamas leader.
The surprise upset was acknowledged by the Fatah party ahead
of the official vote count. The result would not automatically
unseat President Mahmoud Abbas, who was elected last year,
but he has said he might resign if unable to pursue a peace
policy. Meanwhile, Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei
of Fatah and his cabinet resigned today.
Hamas said Thursday that it intends to begin talks on a coalition
as soon as possible, while a senior official from Fatah said
it would not join a Hamas-led government.
Speaking on election night, acting Israeli Prime Minister
Ehud Olmert said Israel could not deal with a Palestinian
Authority which included Hamas.
- Ra'anan Gissin, spokesperson for Israeli Prime Minister
Ehud Olmert.
Meanwhile, Washington has not yet commented on the emerging
results, but President Bush warned on Wednesday he could not
sanction a government led by Hamas in its present form. State
Department spokesperson Sean McCormack issued a similar warning.
- Sean McCormack, State Department spokesperson.
Already the U.S. has been accused of meddling in the Palestinian
election. On Sunday the Washington Post reported the Bush
administration secretly funneled nearly $2 million into public
service projects to help improve the standing of Fatah over
Hamas. That was more money than any Palestinian party spent
on the election.
While the voting on Tuesday went smoothly - with a turnout
of about 75 percent -- thousands of Palestinians faced difficulty
voting in the West Bank because their polling location stood
on the other side of Israel's 400-mile security wall.
- Mouin Rabbani, senior Middle East analyst with the International
Crisis Group and a contributing editor of Middle East
report. He joins us on the line from Amman where he just
returned from Jerusalem.
How Israel and the United States Helped to Bolster
Hamas
As Hamas wins an upset victory in the Palestinian parliamentary
elections, we take a look at the little-known rise of the
militant group with investigative journalist Robert Dreyfuss,
author of the new book "Devil's Game: How the United
States Helped Unleash Fundamentalist Islam." In it, Dreyfuss
reveals how the U.S. looked the other way when Israel's secret
service supported the creation of Hamas. [includes rush
transcript]
According to Middle East analyst Dilip Hero, the success
of Hamas in the Palestinian parliamentary elections comes
as other Islamist groups gaining political strength in the
Middle East. Last year Islamist candidates won most of the
seats in the municipal elections in Saudi Arabia. In Lebannon,
Hizbollah has emerged as the preeminent representative of
Lebanese Shiites. In Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood won 60%
of the seats it contested last year. And in Iraq, religious
Shiite and Sunni parties performed best in December parliamentary
elections.
To talk about the emergence of Hamas as a political force
in the Occupied Territories, we speak with investigative journalist
Robert Dreyfuss. He writes about the rise of Hamas in his
new book Devil's Game: How the United States Helped Unleash
Fundamentalist Islam.
- Robert Dreyfuss, investigative reporter and author of
the book "Devil's Game: How the United States Helped
Unleash Fundamentalist Islam." He is a contributing
editor at Mother Jones, the Nation and American Prospect.
More information at RobertDreyfuss.com.
U.S. Soldier Convicted of Murder Receives No Jail
Time While Nonviolent Antiwar Protesters Sentenced to Six
Months in Prison
Who goes to jail? While an army interrogator convicted of
brutally killing an Iraqi general during receives no jail
time, we look at the case of New York peace activists who
have been sentenced to six months in jail for protesting war.
[includes rush transcript]
We turn now to a pair of court rulings that made headlines
this week. In Colorado a military jury decided on Monday not
to jail an Army interrogator being tried for the killing of
an Iraqi prisoner. Meanwhile a group of four peace activists
in New York were sentenced to up to 6 months for spilling
their own blood at a military recruiting station.
In the case of the Army interrogator, human rights groups
are criticizing the military jury's decision not to jail Chief
Warrant Officer Lewis Welshofer Jr for torturing and killing
Abed Hamed Mowhoush.
Mowhoush died after Welshofer put a sleeping bag over his
head, wrapped him in an electrical cord, covered his mouth
and sat on his chest.
Welshofer was convicted of negligent homicide. Instead of
jail time, the military chose to fine Welshofer $6,000 and
ordered him to spend the next 60 days restricted to his home,
office and church.
- David Danzig, of Human Rights First. He has just returned
from Colorado where he attended the military trial of Army
interrogator Lewis Welshofer. David Danzig is the campaign
Manager for Human Rights First's campaign to address abuses
that have taken place in U.S. detention facilities in Iraq,
Afghanistan, Guantanamo Bay and elsewhere.
- Read HRF's trial monitoring journal.
While Welshofer remains free, four peace activists in upstate
New York are heading to jail this week.
The group, known as the St. Patrick's Four, were arrested
in March 2003 after staging an act of civil disobedience inside
a military recruiting station by spilling containers filled
with their own blood. The protest occurred days before the
U.S. invasion of Iraq.
They were convicted last fall on several misdemeanor counts
for damaging government property and entering a military station
for an unlawful purpose.
So far two of the activists, Daniel Burns and Clare Grady,
have been sentenced to six months in jail. Peter DeMott was
sentenced to four months in prison and four months in a halfway
house. And the fourth protester, Teresa Grady, will be sentenced
on Friday. She joins us in our firehouse studio.
- Teresa Grady, one of the St. Patrick's Four defendants.
- More information at: StPatricksFour.org
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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