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> Tue., Apr. 8, 2003
Flashpoints
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Today's headlines:
US Invaders Fire Tank Shells and Air-to-Surface Missiles and
Kill Three Journalists in Downtown Baghdad;
Interviews with Colleagues of Slain Al Jazeera Journalist
Tareq Ayoub;
Israeli Colonizers Attack Gaza City Killing and Wounding Scores
of Civilians;
Flashpoints Poet-on-Assignment Aurora Levins-Morales Honors
the Memory of the First Native Woman Killed in Foreign Combat;
The Knight Report
8:00:00 PM PST
Dennis Bernstein: introduction: US invaders fire tank shells
and air-to-surface missiles and kill three journalists in
downtown Baghdad; interviews with colleagues of slain Al Jazeera
journalist Tareq Ayoub; Israeli colonizers attack Gaza City
killing and wounding scores of civilians; Flashpoints poet-on-assignment
Aurora Levins-Morales Honors the memory of the first Native
American woman killed in foreign combat.
8:00:30 PM PST
Robert Knight and the Knight Report.. Robert: Never mind Saddam
and the Republican Guard the US attacks its real enemy in
Iraq today, the free press.. a tank fired on the Palestine
Hotel where many journalists are staying.. all journalists
there deny any firing from the Hotel that could have provoked
the tank shelling.. also attacked Al Jazeera TV, killing their
best reporter.. US attacks a residential restaurant, attempting
to get Saddam.. a French TV crew caught the tank shelling
the hotel.. 'very quiet'..
8:04:00 PM PST
Dennis: US attacks journalists in Iraq.. the reason the US
has started killing journalists?.. US committing war crimes..
Red Cross doctors say they saw a truckload of 'totally dismembered'
women and children.. among the three journalists killed was
Tareq Ayoub of Al Jazeera TV, standing on the roof of his
station, when hit by two missiles.. now w Flashpoints special
correspondent, Ziad Abbas who visited his friend Tareq's home
in Jordan this morning.. Ziad: when the news came that Tareq
was killed.. everyone became panicked.. people are very angry..
and people in Baghdad, including journalists, are not safe..
people here in Jordan know the attack was deliberate.. Tareq
was a famous journalist in Jordan.. his mother is very upset,
and angry at the US.. the wife very sad, said Tareq was a
martyr.. his mother had asked him not to go.. but he wanted
to cover what was happening to the people.. his wife coming
from a Palestinian family.. Rumsfeld clear.. doesn't want
the international media in Baghdad.. doesn't want the US people
to see the anger at the US forces in Baghdad.. the journalists
are becoming very angry.. US trying to hide the facts.. want
to design for the people what they should see and not see..
Abu Dhabi TV in Baghdad surrounded by US forces.. by fighting..
25 journalists.. some belonging to Al Jazeera.. asking for
a ceasefire to evacuate the journalists.. something could
happen any moment..
8:15:30 PM PST
Dennis: more about the killing of journalists by the US..
now w a colleague of Tareq, Lamis Andoni.. Ms. Andoni: I'm
sad about the killing of Tareq and about the killing of the
Reuters journalist (whom she also knew).. when journalists
are targeted.. the claim that snipers using Palestine Hotel
to shoot at tanks, and using Al Jazeera TV building.. eyewitnesses
say they didn't see or hear any such think.. the American
tanks were at such a distance that snipers could not have
hurt them.. the owner of Al Jazeera, one of he Emirs of Qatar..
Qatar the headquarters of the US force.. how the Pentagon
is not telling the truth.. appointed a 'liason' to 'deal with'
Al Jazeera.. many interviews with American officials.. just
two days ago the US claimed that the Iraqis were using hospitals
and mosques to snipe.. but vowed to not bomb them because
'the US respects human life and religion'.. but then why shell
a residential hotel housing journalists on the 16th floor?,
or bomb media centers?.. a couple days ago, Al Jazeera had
the only correspondent in Basra, and the 'Coalition' shelled
the hotel room he was staying in.. the implications.. sending
a clear message to all journalists, they don't want (honest)
Arab journalists in Iraq.. the journalists in Abu Dhabi TV
appealed to the Red Cross to take them out.. then the connection
was lost.. and the Pentagon denied a ceasefire.. all journalists
in Baghdad.. extensive footage on Arab TV on the fate of journalists
in Baghdad.. all journalists in the US should raise their
voices.. I hope so.. Ms. Andoni: IT'S SHAME ON THE DAY WHEN
THE US JOURNALISTS REFUSE TO GIVE WITNESS TO THE IRAQI PEOPLE..
IT IS NOT BRAVE TO HIDE THE TRUTH, TAKES MORE COURAGE TO TELL
THE TRUTH..
8:33:30 PM PST
music break
8:35:26 PM PST
Dennis: a horrible situation for the people of Iraq.. now
again w Lamis Andoni, who taught journalism at UC Berkeley,
and who covered the first Gulf War for the Christian Science
Monitor and Financial Times.. Ms. Andoni: about Tareq.. wrote
in both Arabic and English, a financial writer.. enthusiastic
about his work.. Jordan closed banned Al Jazeera and closed
down its offices.. he was a very honest reporter.. was in
Baghdad for five days, with four other Al Jazeera reporters..
good reporting.. about his last report, last night.. wearing
a helmet.. said it was an eerie calm.. this was just before
he was killed.. in Jordan people are very sad and very upset..
angry with the King.. proud to see Jordanian journalists..
he will be remembered.. the Jordanian press association..
the Committee to Protect Journalists.. have condemned
the bombing.. cited the deliberate targeting of Al Jazeera..
Dennis: I was horrified this morning.. KQED fundraiser.. celebrating
the work of.. suggesting that Tareq was asking for it..
8:43:09 PM PST
Dennis: now with Flashpoints *Poet On Assignment*, Aurora
Levins Morales.. Broken Harvest Song.. about the 48 Hopi soldiers
serving in Iraq.. one, a single mother with two children to
feed.. the first Native American woman killed in combat *for*
the US..
8:47:30 PM PST
Dennis: Israeli colonizers continue their attack on Gaza..
helicopters attacking Gaza City.. killing 8, wounding 40..
(Pal
Chron report).. now w Kristen Schurr of the International
Solidarity Movement (ISM).. Kristen: at 7PM F16S started
flying over Gaza.. then Apache homicide helicopters.. fired
one missile.. waited 20 minutes.. then fired another into
the crowd that had gathered.. then fired another.. killed
and wounded many.. in a heavily populated area.. abou the
scene at the hospital.. the Israelis when they started, they
dropped forty lights.. in the hospital, small children rolled
in on gurneys.. covered in blood.. everyone covered in blood..
the hospital ran out of gurneys and beds.. using lawn furniture..
I saw kids with legs bleeding.. women on beds.. people looking
like they weren't going to make it.. the Israelis used the
F16s as cover for the Apache homicide helicopters.. three
missiles.. just a neighborhood like any other.. Baghdad an
echo of what has been happened in Gaza.. destroying the civilian
population, calling the people defending themselves, terrorists..
most of the people here are completely defenceless.. and the
Iraqis don't have anywhere to go either..OUR NEWS IS NOT CENSORED
LIKE THE U.S MEDIA.. WE GET AL JAZEERA, ABU DHABI TV.. SHOW
U.S SOLDIERS PUTTING PLASTIC BAGS ON PEOPLE HEADS.. CNN CUT
THAT PORTION.. ALSO CUT U.S SOLDIERS THROWING PEOPLE ONTO
THE GROUND BY THEIR HAIR AND KICKING THEM.. about the attack
on journalists in Baghdad.. the US media not wanting to truth
to get out.. I have many friends who are journalists here
in Palestine.. one told me, regularly his camera is smashed
by the Israelis.. his film confiscated.. the Israelis do not
want his pictures to get out.. Dennis: about the two photographers
recently who tried to photograph Israelis who were tying young
Pals to the front of their jeep.. they were beaten, spit on,
kicked.. I'm so tired of National Pentagon Radio (NPR)..
8:57:55 PM PST
Dennis: wrapup
8:58:40 PM PST
End today's show. today's review by John Lionheart
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