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> Tues., Mar. 4, 2003
FSRN
FREE SPEECH RADIO NEWS
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Today's lead stories:
Intensified Bombing in Iraq
Troops on Kuwaiti Border
Bush's Medicare "Reform"
Bikini Atoll Anniversary
Community Courts, Not Jail
Intensified Bombing in Iraq (3:51)
The Bush Administration is attempting to exempt the Pentagon's
controversial National Missile Defense System from operational
testing which is legally required of every new weapons system
in order to deploy it by 2004. This information was buried
in the White House's proposed FY2004 budget. Meanwhile, as
Iraq continues to destroy it's Al-Samoud missiles and has
promised to deliver a detailed report on what happened to
stocks of Anthrax and VX nerve gas agents early next week,
the United States has stepped up its bombing of the so-called
No Fly Zone area in the recent days. The Iraqi government
says that the latest bombing has caused the death of 6 civilians
and the injury of fifteen. And as Nadja Middleton reports,
some military analysts see this recent bombing intensification
as an indication that a US led war against Iraq has already
begun.
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Troops on Kuwaiti Border (4:02)
Meanwhile, Iraqi president Saddam Hussein has issued an
order for Iraq's security forces to intensify their emergency
preparedness training ahead of a likely all out US war on
the country. He has also ordered the governors of Iraq's 18
provinces to tell all Iraqi citizens to begin digging trenches.
As the total number of US troops in the gulf just passed the
200,000 mark, Iraq's forces at the border with neighboring
Kuwait are facing some 90, 000 US troops just a few miles
from their positions. FSRN correspondent Jeremy Scahill filed
this report from the Iraqi village of Safwan on the Kuwaiti
border.
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Bush's Medicare "Reform" (3:40)
The White House released a plan today for what the president
calls medicare reform. Critics say the plan was written to
satisfy the pharmaceutical industry, who donate heavily republican
political candidates, and to the private healthcare industry,
who's most famous son is Senate majority leader Bill Frist.
Josh Chaffin reports from DC.
[top]
Bikini Atoll Anniversary (4:05)
After US officials announced yesterday that North Korea
fighter jets had intercepted a US Air Force plane, top Japanese
politicians today called the interception by North Korean
fighters over the Sea of Japan "provocative" and
"abnormal." The Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro
Koizumi said he suspected it was part of Pyongyang's diplomatic
brinkmanship. This as 49 years ago, the US government tested
hydrogen bombs in the Marshall islands, systematically disrupting
the way of life for the indigenous people of the Bikini Atoll.
Miles Ashdown reports from Yaizu, Japan.
[top]
Community Courts, Not Jail (4:06)
Accused Sniper teenager John Malvo was in court again today,
on trial for the spree of shootings last fall across 5 states
and the District of Columbia. Malvo, although a minor, faces
a possible death sentence after Attorney General John Ashcroft
pushed to have the trial in the state of Virginia where minors
can receive the death sentence. This comes as a growing movement
is looking to alternatives to incarceration. Last September,
Chief Justice Rufus King of the Washington, DC Superior Court,
launched the District's first Community Court, joining 30
cities across the United States. Community courts are promoted
as a departure from the lock-em-up approach of the conventional
court system because defendants are often sentenced to drug
treatment or job training programs instead of incarceration.
Critics of community courts say decision-making power is still
in the hands of the criminal justice system and not within
the community. Ingrid Drake from Washington, DC reports.
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