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> Wed., May. 7, 2003
FSRN
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Today's lead stories:
Halliburton’s Iraqi Jackpot!
Still No Communications Inside Baghdad
UN On Post-Saddam Iraq
Depleted Uranium Use In Iraq
Nuke Dump In Latino Community
Halliburton’s Iraqi Jackpot! (4:19)
The Halliburton company is back in the news, as the US Army
Corps of Engineers reveals the vice president's so-called
former employer has been given a contract to run parts of
Iraq's oil industry. At the same time, the White House has
named a new supreme commander to oversee postwar Iraq. Paul
Bremer is a career diplomat and close associate of former
Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. Josh Chaffin reports from
DC.
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Still No Communications Inside Baghdad (3:48)
British Labor MP George Galloway has been suspended from
the party over anti-war remarks he in an interview to Abu
Dhabi TV on March 28, in which he described Prime Minister
Tony Blair and US president George Bush as "wolves"
who had attacked Iraq. Galloway has said he stands by his
remarks, his suspension comes an inquiry is beginning into
allegations made by London’s Daily Telegraph that Galloway
received money from Saddam Hussein's regime. This as today
the World Health Organization (WHO) said it expected a cholera
epidemic in southern Iraq, where 17 cases have already been
registered in two hospitals. The WHO also warned that other
infectious waterborne diseases could break out. Meanwhile,
the Bush Administration bombed nearly every telephone switching
station during the war. The idea was to shut down the communications
infrastructure of Iraq making it more difficult for officials
Saddam Hussein's regime to communicate with each other. With
the telephone switching centers gone, Iraqis can only make
telephone calls within their own neighborhood, making it difficult
to do business and making it impossible for many people to
speak with their families. From Baghdad, Aaron Glantz reports.
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UN On Post-Saddam Iraq (3:41)
Today, 55 years ago a UN mandate created the state of Israel,
wherein some 750,000 indigenous Palestinians were forcibly
expelled or fled from the militias. A condition of Israel’s
admission to the United Nations is repatriation and compensation
for the Palestinian refugees, to this day nothing has been
done nor do the Palestinians have a state. Meanwhile, the
United Nations Security Council is preparing to hold a series
of meetings on Iraq, starting later this week. Topping the
agenda is the question of lifting economic sanctions against
the deposed Iraqi regime. Once the chief proponent of the
sanctions, the US now wants them lifted immediately, but has
yet to make any specific proposals. Such a move is likely
to reopen the councils bitter prewar debate. France, Russia,
China and Germany opposed the US-led invasion and want the
UN to have a political role in determining Iraq’s future.
But the US, supported by Britain and Spain, is making it clear
it intends to limit the UN’s role to providing humanitarian
relief. Susan Wood reports from the UN.
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Depleted Uranium Use In Iraq (3:59)
Although George W. Bush has announced the end of major combat
operations in Iraq, one weapon, Depleted Uranium, will keep
on fighting. DU, a radioactive byproduct created when natural
uranium is enriched for use in nuclear weapons and nuclear
power plants, has a half-life of 4.5 billion years. DU munitions
are used by the United States Air Force's A-10 "warthog"
aircraft, the Army's Abrams tank, and the Marines' AV-8 Harrier
aircraft. According to the London Guardian, experts have estimated
that between 1,000 and 2,000 tons of DU were used in the recent
invasion of Iraq. Kellia Ramares reports.
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Nuke Dump In Latino Community (3:30)
Today, the Texas Senate may be voting on a bill that would
license waste control specialists, a private company, to open
a radioactive waste dump in Andrews County, TX. As Stacy Pettigrew
reports from Austin, a low-income Latino community lives right
in the proposed waste dump site.
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