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Three Years After U.S. Invasion Two Wounded Iraqi Children
and Their Fathers Tell Their Stories
After Criticizing Bush, Harry Belafonte is Disinvited from
the University of Virginia, EyeCare and Speaking at the Coretta
Scott King Funeral
Three Years After U.S. Invasion Two Wounded Iraqi
Children and Their Fathers Tell Their Stories
On the third anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq, we
hear about two Iraqi children who suffered near life-threatening
injuries in the war: 8 year-old Ahmad Sharif lost his eyesight
and right arm after being caught in crossfire and 3 year-old
Alaa Khalid Hamdan was seriously injured when a U.S. tank
opened fire on her family's home. Their fathers join them
to tell their stories and two activists speak about their
efforts to bring the children to the U.S. for medical treatment.
We turn to the war in Iraq. It has now been over three years
since President Bush ordered the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.
At the time he vowed to make every effort to spare innocent
lives and that the U.S. forces would go to Iraq with respect
for its citizens, its civilization and the country's religions.
But three years later Iraq is a devastated country. Tens
of thousands - if not hundreds of thousands -- of Iraqis have
been killed and the violence is only increasing. The actual
death toll among Iraqis may never be known. In 2004, the British
medical journal Lancet estimated 100,000 Iraqis had died since
the war began.
Many of those killed have been children. Today, to mark the
beginning of the fourth year of the Iraq war, we are going
to hear about two Iraqi children who suffered near life-threatening
injuries.
We speak with Ahmad Sharif and his father, Jabbar Sharif.
Two and a half years ago Ahmad lost his eyesight and right
arm after being caught in crossfire. He first came to the
United States last year and received prosthetic eyes and an
arm. He was brought to this country by Elissa Montanti, founder
of the Global Medical Relief
Fund. Ahmad and Jabbar They are translated by Hesham El-Meligy,
an advisor to the Global
Medical Relief Fund
We also speak with Khalid Hamdan Abd who brought his three-year-old
daughter Alaa to the United States for medical treatment.
Last May a U.S. tank opened fire on their home in the town
of Al Qaim near the Syrian border. Two of Khalid's sons died
as did three of his cousins. The infant Alaa was seriously
injured.
Thanks to the organization No
More Victims, she recently had surgery in the United States
to reconstruct her abdominal wall. She also underwent eye
surgery to remove shrapnel and to reattach her retina. According
to her surgeon she would have been blinded for life if she
had not undergone the surgery. We also speak with Cole Miller
a Hollywood screenwriter and founder of NoMoreVictims.org.
They are also translated by Hesham El-Meligy, an advisor to
the Global Medical Relief Fund.
After Criticizing Bush, Harry Belafonte is Disinvited
from the University of Virginia, EyeCare and Speaking at the
Coretta Scott King Funeral
We hear from legendary musician, actor and humanitarian
Harry Belafonte on why he was disinvited from speaking at
the funeral of Coretta Scott King and how he been blacklisted
in places due to his political views. [includes rush
transcript]
As we continue to mark the third anniversary of the Iraq
invasion we turn now to look at how critics of the war have
often been silenced and punished for speaking out against
the invasion and occupation of Iraq as well as the Bush administration.
On Saturday, Democracy Now interviewed legendary singer,
actor and humanitarian, Harry Belafonte at The Great Hall
at Cooper Union.
He revealed the story behind why he was disinvited from the
funeral of Coretta Scott King even though he was a close friend
of both Coretta and her late husband, the Rev. Martin Luther
King.
According to Belafonte, the King family originally invited
him to help eulogize Coretta Scott King but the family rescinded
the invitation after President Bush announced he would attend
the funeral.
Just weeks earlier Belafonte had made international headlines
when he spoke out against President Bush during a trip to
Venezuela to meet with President Hugo Chavez.
In a moment we will hear Harry Belafonte discuss the controversy
surround Coretta Scott King's funeral but we begin with Harry
Belafonte talking about how artists are punished for speaking
out.
- Harry Belafonte, speaking at The Great Hall at Cooper
Union, March 18, 2006.
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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