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Series of Explosions Rip Through Rush-Hour Commuter Trains
in Mumbai Killing Over 180, Wounding 700
Florida Con Salsa: Investigative Reporter Greg Palast Reports
on Voter Fraud in Mexico's Presidential Election
Widow of Al Jazeera Reporter Tareq Ayyoub Filing Lawsuit
Against Bush Administration for Husband's Death in 2003 U.S.
Attack on Baghdad Bureau
Series of Explosions Rip Through Rush-Hour Commuter
Trains in Mumbai Killing Over 180, Wounding 700
Police in India are hunting for clues as to who was behind
Tuesday's deadly bomb attacks on Mumbai's train network that
killed over 180 people and injured over 700. No one has claimed
responsibility for the attacks. We go to Mumbai to speak with
a reporter with the Times of India that was on the scene of
one of the blasts. [includes rush
transcript]
Police in India are hunting for clues as to who was behind
Tuesday's deadly bomb attacks on Mumbai's train network that
killed over 180 people and injured over 700.
Mumbai - formerly known as Bombay - is India's financial
capital and the near-simultaneous blasts happened at the height
of the evening rush hour. At least seven explosions ripped
through commuter trains and stations within 15 minutes of
each other. The blasts all happened in fast trains and inside
first class carriages. The city's train system is one of the
busiest in the world, carrying more than six million commuters
a day.
Train cars were blown apart and witnesses reported body parts
littering the railway tracks. Television images showed footage
of bystanders carrying victims in the rain to ambulances and
searching through the wreckage for survivors and bodies.
In the immediate aftermath of the blasts the city's entire
rail network was shut down, stranding hundreds of thousands
of people in the city overnight. Another bomb was reportedly
defused in a Mumbai suburban station.
Police have carried out a series of raids across Maharashtra,
the state in which Mumbai lies.
The attacks are the worst in the city for more than a decade.
More than 250 people died in a string of blasts in the city
in 1993.
No one has claimed responsibility for the attacks. Indian
prime minister, Manmohan Singh urged calm and blamed unnamed
"terrorists."
But security sources in India have said the synchronized
bombings were likely to have been carried out by militants
connected to one or more of the dozens of armed Kashmiri separatist
groups. Two of the main Muslim militant groups operating in
Kashmir today denied any involvement.
- Nitasha Natu, reporter with The Times of India. She was
on the scene of one of the blasts yesterday. She joins us
on the line from Mumbai.
Florida Con Salsa: Investigative Reporter Greg Palast
Reports on Voter Fraud in Mexico's Presidential Election
In Mexico, populist candidate Andres Manuel López
Obrador released a preliminary video yesterday of what he
says proves he was cheated out of last week's presidential
election. In a video shot in the central state of Guanajuato,
the footage shows an apparent supporter of Calderon's National
Action Party stuffing a ballot box on the day of the elections.
Investigative reporter Greg Palast travels to Mexico City
to report on the disputed election. [includes rush
transcript]
We turn now to the Mexican presidential elections. Last
week, election authorities announced that conservative candidate
Felipe Calderón, a former energy minister, had defeated
Andres Manuel López Obrador by a razor slim margin.
This was after electoral officials recounted ballot tallies
from the initial vote. The recount showed that Calderon won
the presidency by the closest margin in Mexico's history -
around two-hundred-twenty-thousand votes of forty-one million
cast - or just over half a percentage point.
But Lopez Obrador has refused to concede citing electoral
fraud. On Sunday, Lopez Obrador and his supporters filed a
request for a full vote-by-vote recount of the election. They
have also called for supporters to begin marching on the capital
today and to join up for a huge march in Mexico City on Sunday.
Yesterday, Obrador released a preliminary video of what it
says proves he was cheated out of last week's Presidential
election. In a video shot in the central state of Guanajuato,
the footage shows an apparent supporter of Calderon's National
Action Party stuffing a ballot box on the day of the elections.
Mexico"s Federal Electoral Court will review the case,
which includes videos, campaign propaganda and electoral documents.
The court has until September 6 to declare a winner. Meanwhile,
yesterday Felipe Calderon announced his plans for a victory
tour through Mexico.
Investigative reporter Greg Palast was in Mexico City to
cover the story. He filed this report.
- Greg Palast reports from Mexico City. Special thanks
to Rick Rowely and Jacquie Soohen of Big
Noise Films.
Widow of Al Jazeera Reporter Tareq Ayyoub Filing
Lawsuit Against Bush Administration for Husband's Death in
2003 U.S. Attack on Baghdad Bureau
Dima Tahboub, the widow of Al Jazeera correspondent Tareq
Ayyoub is bringing a lawsuit against the Bush administration
for her husband's death. He was killed in April 2003 when
the US military bombed the Al Jazeera offices in Baghdad.
We speak with Dima Tahboub and her attorney. [includes rush
transcript]
The widow of Al Jazeera correspondent Tareq Ayyoub is bringing
a lawsuit against the Bush administration for her husband's
death. On April 8 2003, Ayyoub was reporting from Al Jazeera"s
offices in Baghdad when he was killed by a US missile. He
was the first journalist to be killed in Iraq just hours before
U.S. forces seized the capital.
Yesterday, the attorney for Dima Tahboub, the widow of Tareq
Ayyoub, held a press conference in Washington D.C announcing
the lawsuit. The attorney, Hamdi Rifai, said the case is being
launched in part because of the disclosure last year in London's
Daily Mirror that President Bush told British Prime Minister
Tony Blair of his desire to bomb Al Jazeera's headquarters
in Qatar. The Mirror cited a secret memo leaked from the British
government.
- Dima Tahboub, widow of killed Al Jazeera reporter Tareq
Ayyoub. She joins us on the line from Manchester, England.
- Hamdi Rifai, attorney for Dima Tahboub.
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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