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The End of Maliki? Will a Coup Unravel Iraq? Robert Dreyfuss
and Raed Jarrar Discuss the War in Iraq
Does Tee Stand For Terrorist? NYC Student Stopped on Staten
Island Ferry For Wearing T-Shirt Saying “We Will Not
Be Silent” in Arabic
FCC Commissioner Michael Copps and Juan Gonzalez on the Color
of Media Consolidation
The End of Maliki? Will a Coup Unravel Iraq? Robert
Dreyfuss and Raed Jarrar Discuss the War in Iraq
The Bush administration is coming under increasing pressure
for its handling of the war in Iraq in the face of relentless
bloodshed there. Over 100 Iraqis and seven US troops were
killed over the weekend in a wave of bombings and attacks
that stretched across Iraq. Could a coup be in the works?
[includes rush
transcript]
The Associated Press reports that October is on pace to the
deadliest month for Iraqis since the AP began tracking deaths
in April 2005. And the number of US troops killed in Iraq
in October has reached eighty six, making it the deadliest
month for American soldiers this year.
On Saturday, President Bush met with Vice President Dick
Cheney, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, and top U.S. commanders
including General John Abizaid and General George Casey to
discuss Iraq. The meeting came amid reports the US is losing
confidence in Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki"s ability
or willingness to stem the violence.
President Bush said his weekly radio address the US strategy
in Iraq remained unchanged. He said "We will not pull
our troops off the battlefield before the mission is complete."
But the New York Times reported on Sunday the Bush administration
is for the first time drafting a timetable for the Iraqi government
to address violence and assume a larger role in securing the
country. According to the Times, officials said that Iraq
would likely be asked to agree to a schedule of specific milestones,
like disarming militias, or face political "penalties."
Some analysts say the plan is also an attempt to pre-empt
the findings of the independent commission on Iraq led by
former secretary of state James Baker. In an interview with
President Bush this weekend, ABC’s George Stephanopoulos
asked about Baker’s plan to develop a strategy for Iraq
that is “between ’stay the course’ and ‘cut
and run.’” Bush responded, "We’ve never
been stay the course, George."
Robert Dreyfuss joins me now from Washington DC. He has written
extensively about Iraq for numerous publications and is author
of the book, "Devil”s Game: How the United States
Helped Unleash Fundamentalist Islam." I am also joined
by Iraqi blogger and architect Raed Jarrar. He is the Iraq
Project Director for Global Exchange and runs a blog called
"Raed in the Middle."
- Robert Dreyfuss, author of "Devil”s Game:
How the United States Helped Unleash Fundamentalist Islam."
He covers national security for Rolling Stone and writes
frequently for The American Prospect, Mother Jones, and
the Nation.
- Raed Jarrar an Iraqi blogger and architect. His blog
"Raed in the Middle" is at raedinthemiddle.blogspot.com.
Raed is Iraq Project Director for Global Exchange.
Does Tee Stand For Terrorist? NYC Student Stopped
on Staten Island Ferry For Wearing T-Shirt Saying “We
Will Not Be Silent” in Arabic
Hunter College student Stephanie Schwartz says Coast Guard
officials stopped her two weeks ago aboard the ferry. During
the summer, Iraqi blogger Raed Jarrar was stopped by security
officials for wearing the same t-shirt at JFK Airport. He
was forced to change the shirt before boarding a JetBlue flight.
[includes rush
transcript]
Later today a protest will take place at the Staten Island
Ferry in New York city. Recently, a woman riding the ferry
was stopped, surrounded and questioned by U.S. Coast Guard
officials. She was wearing a T-shirt that had Arabic print
on it. It read "We Will Not Be Silent."
The student was Stephanie Schwartz -- and she joins me now
here in our Firehouse studio.
Raed Jarrar is still with us from Washington DC. A few months
ago Raed was wearing a similar t-shirt as he was boarding
a JetBlue airways flight at Kennedy airport in New York. Airport
officials forced him to change his T-Shirt before getting
on the plane.
We left a message with the Coast Guard public affairs office
but did not hear back from them.
- Stephanie Schwartz, Hunter College Student who was recently
stopped by Coast Guard officials for wearing T-shirt with
Arabic writing
- Raed Jarrar, an Iraqi blogger and architect. His blog
"Raed in the Middle" is at raedinthemiddle.blogspot.com.
Raed is Iraq Project Director for Global Exchange.
FCC Commissioner Michael Copps and Juan Gonzalez
on the Color of Media Consolidation
Copps and Gonzalez spoke at last week’s town hall
meeting in New York on diversity and media ownership. The
FCC is reconsidering a number of broadcast rules -including
whether a single company should be able to own both a newspaper
and television station in the same market. [includes rush
transcript]
A town hall meeting on diversity and media ownership was
held last week here in New York City. All five commissioners
from the Federal Communications Commission were invited. Only
two showed up – Commissioners Michael Copps and Jonathan
Adelstein. More than 300 activists and citizens came out to
show their opposition to further media consolidation as the
FCC reconsiders a number of broadcast rules - including whether
a single company should be able to own both a newspaper and
television station in the same market.
- Michael Copps, FCC Commissioner.
- Juan Gonzalez, Daily News columnist and Democracy Now
co-host.
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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